Ole Miss baseball falls to Florida, 6-5, drops first SEC series of season

The Rebel comeback fell just short on Saturday afternoon as Ole Miss lost its first SEC series of the season at No. 15 Florida after a 6-5 final score.

Derek Diamond had a rough outing to put it bluntly. He struggled to put away Gator hitters, and his pitch count ballooned early. The Rebels faced a 6-2 deficit about halfway through the game before clawing back to make it 6-5 late. Ole Miss got two runners on in the ninth inning before a couple of flyouts ended the threat and concluded the game.

In close games, runners left on base will haunt your nightmares, but this is a team who hasn’t necessarily lost a lot of tight contests just yet.

It’s tough to win a road series in the SEC, especially against a nationally-ranked team. Even though Florida has taken its lumps early on this season, the Gators have a plethora of talent and were ranked number one in the country by numerous polls entering the season.

This series loss doesn’t really hurt anything, especially since it just makes you 7-2 in league play.

The Rebels are still sitting pretty, and they have another test coming next week when Arkansas comes to town before traveling to Starkville the following weekend. Then, the Rebels will be at the halfway point of the SEC season.

The bottom line is that Ole Miss was just outplayed over the course of this weekend. Sometimes that happens, and while it is in no way fun, the Rebels didn’t play egregiously poorly; Florida just played really well. The Gators have the talent to make a run in SEC play and into the postseason in 2021, and they should be in the mix late.

The Rebels return home for five-straight this week. They’ll face North Alabama on Monday and Alcorn State on Tuesday before welcoming in the Razorbacks next weekend. It’ll be good to be back home at Swayze.