OXFORD — Jake Rogers hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning to lead the second-seeded Tulane baseball team to a 6-5 victory against top-seeded Ole Miss in an elimination game of the NCAA tournament’s Oxford Regional on Saturday.
“He threw me a fastball in, and I turned on it pretty well,” Rogers said. “I knew he kind of relied on his breaking stuff. He kind of hung one and I got enough on it to help the team win.
“It was fun. I don’t really remember (running around the bases after the home run). I kind of blacked out a little bit, but it was good. It is up there. One or two for sure.”
Tulane (40-20) trailed 5-4 going into the ninth, but Stephen Alemais drew a one-out walk and set the stage for Rogers to drive the ball over the left-field fence.
Corey Merrill earned the win after giving up one run in three innings of relief.
“It was an outstanding game,” Tulane coach David Pierce said. “Both teams played their hearts out. Both teams played with guts. I was really proud of college baseball today. But if you look at the game, we looked for our starting pitchers to give us a chance to win the game and that’s exactly what Alex Massey did. Just a great ball game. A lot of guys came through and played with confidence.”
Ole Miss (43-19) lost two straight games to end its NCAA tournament. Will Stokes took the loss, giving up two earned runs in two innings of relief.
“The other teams just played better than we did, got a few more hits, a few more pitches and made a few more plays,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco. “I’m just so proud of this team. I don’t think many expected us to be playing in June in Oxford with this team this year. But those guys in the third base dugout did. As a coach I couldn’t be any prouder. It’s all you can ask, for them to give you everything they can. It’s just a wonderful group of kids and they are great representatives of the University and it is just a shame that it ended like this.”
Juniors Errol Robinson and Colby Bortles had two hits apiece to pace Ole Miss. Robinson provided a clutch bases-loaded two-RBI single in the seventh, while Bortles scored a team-high two runs, including one on his eighth home run.
For the second-straight day, sophomore Kyle Watson homered to deep center field and reached base three times.
Ole Miss starting pitcher David Parkinson received a no decision after limiting Tulane to two runs in 5 2/3 innings. It was Parkinson’s fourth-consecutive start with two or fewer earned runs allowed.
It was the first time all season that the Rebels failed to win when leading after eight innings.
“I don’t think much changed,” Bortles said. “I think we still swung it well. I think, like Coach Bianco said, the baseball gods weren’t on our side. There were a lot of good plays out there. We had some chances with guys on base where we couldn’t come through the last two games.”
Rogers and Hunter Williams combined five hits and five RBIs for the Green Wave. Williams hit two homers.
“I just go up there and try not to do too much,” Williams said. “Go up there and find a good pitch to hit and take a good swing on it. I found the barrel on both swings and the ball kind of jumped out a little bit.”
Ole Miss led off the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when J.B. Woodman sent a 3-0 pitch to deep center for an RBI double, bringing in Tate Blackman.
Williams gave the Green Wave a lead with a pair of solo shots to center in the second and fourth innings.
The Rebels used long balls of their own to re-take the lead in the fifth inning. Bortles led off the inning with a homer to left field on a 1-0 pitch. Two batters later, Watson hit his second home run of the regional to give the Rebels the 3-2 advantage.
Parkinson’s day came to an end after Tulane had two batters reach via infield singles in the top of the sixth. Ole Miss called on freshman Connor Green out of the bullpen with two outs. He delivered by striking out Tulane’s Hunter Hope to end the scoring threat.
Tulane would re-claim the lead in the seventh by way of a Grant Brown RBI double and a Rogers RBI single. However, Ole Miss would answer right back in the bottom half of the inning. The Rebels loaded up the bases with singles from Henri Lartigue and Bortles as well as a walk from Holt Perdzock. As he has done throughout his Rebel career, Robinson came through with two outs in the inning by sending a 2-2 pitch through the left side of the infield to score both Lartigue and Bortles and give the Rebels back the lead, 5-4.
After a scoreless eighth inning, the Green Wave took the lead for good on Rogers’ home run.
“I am a little biased, but I think (Rogers) is one of the best defensive catchers in the country,” Pierce said. “He’s been doing that all year. We’ve taken him for granted so much. He was good back there again, and I think he makes our pitchers better because of it. Our pitchers have a lot of confidence to throw the breaking ball in the dirt when we have two strikes, so they rely on him and he’s done a great job for us.”
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