HOOVER, Ala. — After waiting more than three hours to start its SEC tournament game, the Ole Miss baseball team built an early lead but couldn’t hold on in a 5-4 loss to No. 24 Auburn in the final game Tuesday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
Former New Hope High School standout Will Golsan went 2-for-3 with two runs for his team-leading 20th multi-hit game of the year for the No. 9 seed Rebels (32-25), who will await word on a possible NCAA tournament bid. The tournament field will be announced at 11 a.m. Monday on ESPNU.
No 8 seed Auburn (35-22) will play No. 1 seed Florida at approximately 8 tonight in the final game of the day.
Auburn used its best starting pitchers to sneak by Ole Miss. The Rebels scored two runs on four hits in three innings off Keegan Thompson before plating two more off Casey Mize (7-2). Junior Kyle Watson added an RBI single for Ole Miss. In the ninth, Ryan Olenek hit his third home run.
Making his first start since March 18 versus Vanderbilt, redshirt sophomore Brady Feigl allowed three runs and five hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Jonah Todd, Conor Davis, and Blake Logan had two hits apiece to lead the Tigers. Todd’s two-run triple and Logan’s solo home run gave Auburn its leads throughout the night.
The Rebels struck first thanks to a pair of hits in the opening frame. Golsan singled up the middle and scored on a double to left field by Nick Fortes. One inning later, Ole Miss used another two-hit combination to double its lead. Cooper Johnson doubled off the 405-foot mark in dead center field and scored on Watson’s single.
In the bottom of the second, a pair of errors kept the inning alive for Auburn and loaded the bases with one out. However, Feigl forced a groundball to third, and Colby Bortles fired home to get the force out before another grounder to second ended the inning with Ole Miss leading 2-0.
Auburn turned the game in its favor in the bottom of the fourth. The Tigers recorded a single, and Feigl recorded back-to-back outs before the rally began. Thanks to a single, double and triple in succession, Auburn plated three two-out runs to grab its first lead, 3-2.
Ole Miss tied the game in the top of the sixth. Golsan nearly knotted the game as his double ricocheted off the wall in left-center field. Looking to move Golsan closer to home, Fortes placed down a bunt and reached first as the throw to the bag went wide. As the ball rolled into right field, Fortes advanced to second and Golsan scored.
The Tigers took the lead back with a solo home run by Logan off Will Stokes (2-2). In the bottom of the eighth, Auburn added a run that proved to be pivotal. Two singles to go along with a sacrifice bunt made it a 5-3 game. Olenek cut the deficit in half with his homer in the top of the ninth, but Mize finished the game to hang on to the one-run win for his team.
The game was postponed three hours and 25 minutes from its original start time due to a rain delay in the second game of the day.
n Southern Miss faces Texas-San Antonio in Conference USA tournament: At Biloxi, Southern Miss will begin defense of its Conference USA tournament crown at 4 p.m. today when it takes on Texas-San Antonio at MGM Park. The game will be available on ESPN3.
Junior right-hander Colt Smith (6-0, 3.61 earned run average) is scheduled to start for the Golden Eagles against junior left-hander Steven Dressler (3-4, 4.20).
Southern Miss (44-12) set a program record for regular-season wins and enjoys the No. 1 seed in the tournament for the second time in its history. Southern Miss is riding a school-record 14-game winning streak after winning its fourth C-USA regular-season crown.
The No. 1 seed is courtesy of a 25-5 C-USA record that was six games better than second-place Old Dominion and included a 12-game winning streak to end the league season as well as a 14-1 conference road record.
UTSA, the No. 8 seed, is 28-26.
n In related news, Southern Miss’ Dylan Burdeaux and Matt Wallner were named C-USA Player and Freshman of the Year, respectively, on Tuesday.
Burdeaux, the first Southern Miss player to win C-USA Player of the Year honors, leads Division I in hits with 97 and leads Conference USA in RBIs (66), total bases (152), and stolen bases (19). His 22 doubles and 61 runs scored each rank second in C-USA. Burdeaux batted .403 in league play and is hitting .372 overall, while entering the C-USA Championship on an 11-game hitting streak, with base knocks in 31 of his last 33 outings.
Wallner, only the second Golden Eagle to win Freshman of the Year, enjoys a .340 batting average and ranks second in the conference with 17 home runs and 55 RBIs. His home run total is the most by a Southern Miss freshman. He ranks second in C-USA in slugging percentage (.680) and on-base percentage (.466). Wallner also has registered a 2-0 pitching record with a 1.84 ERA and three saves in eight relief appearances. The only freshman to earn All-Conference honors, he is the second player in Southern Miss history to receive an invitation to attend the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp this summer.
In addition, coach Scott Berry was named the Keith LeClair Coach of the Year and hitting coach Chad Caillet earned the assistant coach of the year honor.
Joining Burdeaux on the all-league first team included utility player Taylor Braley, starting pitcher Kirk McCarty, and relief pitchers Nick Sandlin, and Smith. Outfielders Mason Irby and Wallner earned second-team accolades.
n Davis one of five South Alabama players to earn All-Sun Belt Conference honors: At New Orleans, South Alabama first baseman Wells Davis, a former standout at New Hope High School, earned second-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors Monday.
Davis joined catcher Jared Barnes, shortstop Drew LaBounty, and outfielder Travis Swaggerty who earned first-team All-SBC honors and outfielder Dylan Hardy, who earned second-team all-conference honors.
Davis finished the regular season ranked third in the league in RBIs (54), tied for fourth in sacrifice flies (four), fifth in home runs (12), and tied for ninth in slugging percentage (.536). He finished tied for the league lead in home runs (10) in SBC games, ranked third in slugging percentage (.684), fourth in runs scored (32), and eighth in on-base percentage (.447).
n In related news, South Alabama’s Sun Belt Conference tournament opener against No. 6 seed Troy, scheduled for 8 a.m. today has been pushed back.
Sun Belt Conference officials are set to meet with Georgia Southern officials Wednesday morning to evaluate the field conditions at J.I. Clements Stadium, and determine game times for the tournament.
The conference and Georgia Southern hope to maintain the double-elimination format with the intent to play as many games as possible today with the possibility of utilizing multiple sites, if necessary, in order to do so. However, games today won’t be played prior to 10 a.m. Officials will provide an update following the field evaluation this morning.
All of Tuesday’s games were postponed due to inclement weather and field conditions.
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