Diamond Rebs advance in baseball regional

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—The No. 2 seed Ole Miss Rebels defeated the No. 3 St. John’s Red Storm 10-5 in their first game of the NCAA Tournament Friday evening in the Charlottesville Regional on the campus of the University of Virginia.

“I thought we played well tonight,” said Ole Miss Manager Mike Bianco. “Offensively I thought we were terrific. We only had single-digit hits, but, fortunately for us, they had trouble finding the strike zone and that gave us a lot of opportunities.”

Ole Miss ace Drew Pomeranz went 7+ innings against the visitors from Queens, striking out five and walking three. He allowed two earned runs, which were scored after his departure in the seventh.

“Control was a problem…a little bit towards the beginning of the game,” said Pomeranz.  “I settled down a little bit and it all came together.”

The Rebels missed a scoring opportunity early when catcher Mike Hamblin, who was hit by a Kyle Hansen pitch and advanced to second base on a wild pitch, was left stranded in scoring position.

Despite missing their opportunity in the first, the Rebels drew first blood in the bottom half of the second.

After Zach Miller singled to lead off the inning, he advanced to second when Taylor Hashman singled on a bunt. 

A Kevin Mort sacrifice bunt proved unnecessary thanks to a Tanner Mathis standup triple, which scored the runners and provided the Rebels with an early 2-0 lead.

Ole Miss built on its lead in the third when Hamblin hit a solo home run over the right-centerfield wall to give the Rebels a 3-0 lead over the Red Storm, and the Rebels extended their lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Alex Yarbrough cranked a one-out solo home run over the right field bleachers.

Later in the frame, with two out and Mort on third Tim Ferguson upstaged Hamblin and Yarbrough by cranking a two-run shot to the power alley in left.

St. John’s slowed down the Rebels offense, but was unable to completely stop the bleeding in the bottom of the fifth. Matt Snyder tagged up on a Yarbrough sacrifice fly to left to further pad the Ole Miss cushion to the tune of 7-0.

On Eric Callender’s first pitch in relief of Pomeranz in the seventh inning, St. John’s left fielder Jeremy Baltz hit a three-run home run to left, cutting the Ole Miss lead to four runs, 7-3.

“I was looking for a first-pitch fastball and he threw it,” said Baltz.

The Rebels were again cooking in the eighth, with the bases loaded and one out. St. John’s relief pitcher Jose Rodriguez promptly walked in Matt Snyder, the only batter he would face, to increase the Rebel lead to 8-3.

A two-out, two-run single by Hashman would push the Rebel lead back to seven at 10-3.

But the Red Storm did not go away. In fact they scored two in the ninth, which ended with the bases loaded.

According to St. John’s Manager Ed Blankmeyer, his team’s offensive output in the final innings was simply “[t]oo little, too late.”

With the result victory, the Rebels will face the Virginia Cavaliers at 5 p.m. CST Saturday. The Cavaliers won the final two games of the Super Regional in Oxford last season to prevent Ole Miss from punching its ticket to the College World Series.

“Each year’s different,”  Bianco said, dismissing the revenge storyline. “They’re very impressive….They’re a better club than they were last year.