No. 4 Ole Miss powers it’s way past No. 22 Southern Miss in Super Regional Rematch. Here are three takeaways.

OXFORD, Ms – No. 22 Southern Miss will have to wait for its revenge after dropping a midweek matchup to No. 4 Ole Miss 11-5. The Rebels have ended Southern Miss’s season two years in a row now and came into Hattiesburg last season and swept Southern Miss to pave the way to their National Championship. Tonight, there was no change. Ole Miss still has Southern Miss’s number.

“Tough loss, but we ran into a really good team. They are the No. 4 team in the country for a reason, and we saw that. Offensively they are very, very, strong.” Southern Miss head coach Scott Berry said.

Game Recap

Southern Miss scratched across a run in the first inning after an error by Ole Miss third baseman Ethan Lege to take a 1-0 lead.

Then in the bottom of the second, Ole Miss took the lead for good thanks to a pair of home runs by Anthony Calarco and Peyton Chatagnier to go ahead 2-1.

Then over the next three innings, Ole Miss put up six runs to go ahead 8-1 and put Southern Miss in a bind. However, to the Golden Eagles’ credit, they responded by batting around in the fifth and scoring four runs.

Carson Paetow opened the inning with a solo shot to right field, his first of the year. Then Blake Johnson got on base via a hit-by-pitch, and Danny Lynch reached after an error by Ole Miss.

Creek Robertson plated a run with an RBI single, Matthew Etzel picked up an RBI single then Dustin Dickerson picked up a 2RBI double to bring the score to 8-5. Slade Wilks hit into a double play with the bases loaded with one out to end the frame, which took away any momentum that Southern Miss had.

The Rebels then put up three more runs after that frame to seal the deal.

Takeaways

1. Midweek pitching is a big question mark.

The Rebels were able to draw out Southern Miss’s continued weakness in the bullpen. The Golden Eagles pitched seven pitchers, and everyone gave up an earned run except Kros Sivley. This is something that the casual Golden Eagle is just not used to seeing. But this Ole Miss lineup is one of the best in the country, and it is hard to criticize these young arms against a power-hitting lineup that the Rebels have.

“I think right now that’s where our midweek bullpen is. We are trying to search for those guys. Once again, you have to understand that’s a really good lineup that Ole Miss is throwing out there at you.” Berry said.

Last season, Ole Miss in the last month was Southern Miss’ only midweek loss due to the depth in the bullpen. This season, Southern Miss is 1-2 in midweeks, and the schedule leaves no room for error. Mississippi State and Ole Miss on the docket while trying to get your pitching staff figured out is a tall task, so the concern level should not be through the roof right now for Golden Eagle fans.

“You hope they grow from it. If there’s anything from a loss, it’s that you hope you grow from it.” Berry said about the bullpen.

2. The offense has no trouble getting them on; they cannot get them home.

On the other hand, the Golden Eagle lineup tonight was quite good. Southern Miss had seven runs along with seven hits. They lost, but there is only so much you can ask a lineup to do. Not every team is built with the firepower that Ole Miss is built with, where every player on their lineup has gone yard this season. Southern Miss would like to get there, but the simple fact is that they are not.

“Offensively we have got to keep competing. I thought Dickerson and Etzel had really good night, they had nice approaches at the plate. If we can just get some other guys going, we’ll be fine.” Berry said.

Southern Miss has no trouble getting their runners on base or even getting hits, for that matter. They, for whatever reason, cannot get runs home. They have left an insane amount of runners on base this season, with ten more tonight.

If they can get even half of those runners in, they will start to have great success on the offensive side.

3. It is still a young season, and Southern Miss has much to build on.

Southern Miss has shown their strengths and they have shown its weaknesses throughout the first 12 games of the season. Good for them and Southern Miss fans; a ton of baseball is yet to be played.

The Golden Eagles have some questions to answer in their bullpen and rotation, but once they figure it out, this team will be as good as anybody.

Billy Oldham’s injury earlier in the season has caused some sure problems for the midweek games, but Scott Berry said that he should be “good to go” for this weekend against Valparaiso. That will be a huge get back for Southern Miss.

Ole Miss has beaten Southern Miss four times in a row now. All four of them really were not even close. Southern Miss will get another shot at them on March 28. But for now, they look forward to a weekend series with Valparaiso.