Ole Miss baseball falls to Florida in series opener, 4-1

All good things must come to an end - including SEC win streaks.

That was the case for Ole Miss (20-5, 6-1 SEC) on Thursday night as Gainesville was cold, and the Rebel bats were even colder in a 4-1 loss to Florida (17-8, 4-3 SEC). Ole Miss’ lone run came via a Peyton Chatagnier sacrifice fly early in the game.

Gunnar Hoglund pitched just fine. His stuff wasn’t at its best, but he exited with the Rebels trailing 2-1 in the seventh inning and very much in the game. Florida utilized the “opener” strategy, throwing a bullpen arm for four innings before turning the ball over to typical-starter Tommy Mace. On Thursday night at least, it worked. The Gators are planning to employ a similar strategy on Friday.

The Rebels got the leadoff man on in multiple innings but only brought him home once on the previously-mentioned sacrifice fly. Ben Van Cleve continues to struggle at the plate, and I doubt we’ll see him again this weekend barring something crazy. I’m not inside Bianco’s head, but that just feels like what’s coming.

In short, it was a bleh game, but Rebel fans can only tip your hat. Ole Miss simply didn’t have it last night and got outplayed. Not much fans or the team can do about that — losses happen on the road in the ultra competitive SEC.

Also, it’s still very good to be 6-1 in league play and atop the SEC West.

There’s still a lot of baseball left this weekend, and the Rebels’ sights will be set on improving that mark before Easter Sunday.

Game two between Ole Miss and Florida is on Friday at 5:30pm CST on SEC Network+.