MONROE, La. – Ole Miss baseball rode the nation’s longest winning streak into a two-game bout on the banks of the majestic Bayou Desiard against Louisiana Monroe on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Rebels kept the good times rolling by a combined score of 24-10, and have now won 16 games in a row.
Outside of being in Monroe, La., it was a pretty fun spring break road trip to surely be celebrated with plenty of Johnny’s Pizza. Here are some of the highlights:
The grind was real, for a minute.
It was a familiar first inning for the Rebels, hopping out to a three-run lead just three batters into the game. Anthony Servideo and Peyton Chatangier led off with consecutive base hits, and Tyler Keenan continued a 10-game hitting streak with his fifth home run of the season off the top of the left-centerfield wall.
Perhaps the broken record actually sounds pretty good?
ULM got ahead of Benji Gilbert (making his first career start) and tied it up with a two-run shot in the bottom half of the first inning. Then a string of convenient ground-outs in the second inning moved a runner to third before he scored on a worm-burning single. Gilbert settled down in the third, took down the Warhawks 1-2-3, and finished with three earned runs on five hits with two strikeouts in 3.1 innings pitched.
From there, the main staples of the bullpen closed it out. After not pitching against Princeton, Taylor Broadway, Austin Miller and Braden Forsyth kept their arms loose and split a scoreless 5.3 innings of work.
Miller and Forsyth both struck out two while Broadway sat down four in 2.2 innings of work.
Later in the game, Jerrion Ealy got in on the party by throwing out a runner at the plate by a comfortable margin from left field. Five. Tool. Guy.
The cannons were firing on Tuesday.
Big time Timmy.
Tied at three runs on Tuesday, Keenan and Ben Van Cleve began the sixth inning with a leadoff walk and a double that put two runners in scoring position and Tim Elko at the plate. He continued his hot streak and ripped a double into the left-field corner that gave Ole Miss a 5-3 lead.
Elko would finish the night 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and scored the Rebels’ sixth and final run after recording the team’s first triple of the year. It was his fourth multi-RBI game, and his fourth multi-hit game of the season.
His bat stayed toasty on Wednesday and knocked in the second run in the top of the first, which scored Keenan and gave Ole Miss a 2-0 lead. He added a stolen base, and wasn’t done there
Later in the afternoon, Elko tracked down a fly ball and made a play at the wall for the out. The senior captain has found a groove, and coach Mike Bianco would certainly love it if his middle-of-the-lineup hitter can keep it up at the plate and in the outfield.
TK made it hurt.
The second inning on Wednesday began with some confusion that resulted in a run for Ole Miss, and the ejection of Louisiana Monroe’s head coach Mike Federico. The wheels fell off, and Keenan came to the plate with two runners on and a 3-0 lead.
As he does, he went yard.
It was gone before it even hit the aluminum, and extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
In his next at-bat, with an 8-0 cushion after a Hayden Dunhurst bomb (he hit two in the game), Keenan did it again and crushed his third home run in two days. His seventh dinger of the year makes him the team leader and gave Ole Miss a 10-0 lead.
Behind freshman left-handed pitcher Jackson Kimbrell’s final line of six hits, one earned run, and four strikeouts in five innings, the Rebels went on to an 18-7 victory on Wednesday, and swept the midweek miniseries.
Ole Miss now heads home and turns its attention to conference play, beginning with LSU.
It has been an impressive start to the year, but this weekend’s rivalry series will show how good this team really is.
Keep having fun!
