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Ole Miss baseball walked off by Texas A&M, but bigger story is status of Gunnar Hoglund

Welp.

By John Macon Gillespie
Ole Miss Athletics

Gunnar Hoglund threw 18 pitches before he was pulled in the first inning, and, despite the mass confusion from the broadcast crew, it was clear that something was physically wrong with the Rebel ace.

What was originally thought by those of us on the Twittersphere to be an illness or something like that turned out to be forearm tightness, which isn’t a good sign moving forward.

So, if Gunnar is having these kinds of issues with his arm, it’s possible that the projected-first-round pick could be sidelined sometime in the future to save himself for the draft. I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen, but it might make sense, and honestly, who could blame him? The kid is set to make millions of dollars this summer if all holds true, and his career is more important than what he does in a Rebel uniform.

ANYWAY, here’s what else happened in College Station on Friday:

Ole Miss lost.

The Rebels were able to get a lot of hits, but so did the Aggies, including a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the ninth.

After a five-spot was put up by the Aggies, the Ole Miss offense immediately responded with back-to-back dingers and a four-run rally to tie it.

The bullpen didn’t look all that bad for the most part. Derek Diamond was probably left in a batter or two too long, and that wound up costing the Rebels somewhat, even though they were able to fight back and tie the game the next inning.

Jack Doughtery looked good save for the solo shot he gave up in the ninth, and Austin Miller was very useful, throwing over 40 pitches and being able to keep Ole Miss in the game late.

Losing on Friday night sucks, especially when you’re the better team and fighting for a regional host and to get back in the national seed conversation, but when you lose your ace in the first inning, it could have gone a lot worse. Just have to bounce back tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, the Rebels and Aggies have an early first pitch on ESPNU (fun!) at 11 a.m. Doug Nikhazy will try to do what he’s done a bunch of other times this season and SAVE THE WEEKEND BEFORE SUNDAY which would be very big.