Oxford, Mississippi – With the second game of Saturday's doubleheader washed out due to inclement weather, the No. 6 Texas A&M Aggies lost the regular-season finale to the Ole Miss Rebels, 7-4, at Swayze Field.
The Aggies ended the season in third place in the SEC overall standings and second in the SEC Western Division with a .643 winning percentage (18-10). The overall conference winner will either be Eastern Division Champion Vanderbilt (20-9) or Western Division Champion LSU (20-8) who were both in action on Saturday evening.
The Aggies drew first blood in the top of the first inning. Blake Allemand poked a leadoff single to leftfield and moved to second when the leftfielder was unable to field the ball cleanly. After Ryne Birk swung and missed at strike three, Mitchell Nau singled to rightfield to stake the Aggies to a 1-0 lead.
Hunter Melton blasted a 1-2 offering over the leftfield fence for a leadoff home run in the second, increasing the A&M advantage to 2-0.
A&M starter Ryan Hendrix was able to work out of a two-out jam in the first inning, but was unable to do the same in the second. With two outs, Kyle Watson hit a single to centerfield and Cameron Dishon bounced a single up the middle. Ole Miss loaded the bases with an infield single by Errol Robinson. Will Golsan followed with a grounder to short and rather than trying to retire the runner at first, Allemand threw late to second base, allowing a run to score. The Rebels benefitted from their third consecutive weakly batted ball when Colby Bortles chopped a grounder to third, evening the game at 2-2. Sikes Orvis drew a five-pitch walk to plate Robinson for the go-head run.
Ole Miss (30-25, 15-14 SEC) posted back-to-back three-run innings to take a 6-2 lead in the third. JB Woodman started the inning with a double down the rightfield line and came around to score on Nic Perkins' single to leftfield. Watson dropped a single in front of Nick Choruby in center to keep the Rebel rally rolling. Hendrix was relieved by Corbin Martin mid-batter and the duo each threw two balls to Dishon to load the bases. Robinson singled through the left side of the infield, driving in two runs and inflating the cushion to 6-2.
The Rebels tacked on an insurance run in the eighth. With one out, a walk by Watson, single to centerfield by Dishon and walk by Robinson loaded the bases and Golsan hit a sacrifice fly to leftfield to increase the lead to 7-2.
Texas A&M (43-10, 18-10 SEC) made a late charge in the sixth, but it came up short. Allemand singled up the middle to start the frame and Birk blasted a full-count offering to dead-center for his eighth home run of the season, cutting the Ole Miss lead to 7-4. Jacob Waguespack induced a pair of grounders to short, the first resulted in an out and Logan Taylor reached on a single with the second. Wyatt Short quelled the rally and retired the next five batters.
Hendrix (4-2) was saddled with the loss. He allowed six runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out four in 2.0 innings.
Four months after suffering an injury in the first spring practice, Tyler Stubblefield worked 0.2 scoreless innings in his first appearance of the year. He allowed one hit and induced two fly outs.
Brady Bramlett (7-3) earned the win for Ole Miss. He allowed four runs, three earned, on five hits while striking out seven in 5.0 innings. Short earned his 10th save of the season, retiring all five of the batters he faced in 1.2 innings, including two strikeouts.
