Taylor Rabe
Location is important in many ways, but in baseball, it reigns paramount. Just ask Ole Miss pitchers Taylor Rabe and J.P. Robertson.
The Rebel pair combined to pitch the best game of the season for their 15th ranked team and keep hope alive for a potential regional host in Oxford.
Rabe was brilliant after getting called to pitch the second game of the series rather than the third. He responded with six superb innings, allowing only two base-runners, while striking out 12 as Ole Miss skunked Alabama 9-0 Friday night in Tuscaloosa and even its Southeastern Conference series. The series decider and last game of the regular season is Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be the featured event of the day on the SEC Network.
Too bad, Rabe, can’t pitch that one too.
From the first pitch, Rabe had a blazing fastball and a biting slider. He struck out the first six batters faced. The only hard hit ball was a liner he caught. He had 11 ks through five innings.
A single in the sixth was followed by a hit batter and that was it for base-runners for the Tide.
Robertson came in and threw three scoreless innings of relief. Like Rabe, his ball moved with bite and Tide hitters were left clueless. He had four fans and with Rabe, it was 16 total.
Alabama tried to crowd the plate and step out. It got them a hit and another hit batter in the seventh, but Robertson came back with a fan to end the threat and keep a 5-0 lead for the Rebels. He retired the final six to close the game with a save.
Ole Miss extended the lead to 7-0 on a two-run homer by Austin Fawley. They had two more in the ninth with Will Furniss getting his fifth RBI of the night off a single that scored Dom Decker. Both had two hits to lead Ole Miss, which improves to 36-19 overall and 15-14 in the SEC.
Finishing no worse than .500 in the conference will help the Rebs with the NCAA committee for a Top 16 seed. They came in at No. 13 in RPI, and a win over No. 6 Alabama (36-18), will only help.
Ole Miss grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first when Judd Utermark singled, moved to second on a double to the right field from Tristan Bissetta and then scored on a grounder from Furniss.
In the fifth, Ole Miss extended the margin to 5-0 behind Owen Paino and Furniss.
First, Paino went deep off Adams to right center for a 2-0 lead. Dom Decker extended the rally with a hit to right and a walk by Bissetta put two on for Furniss. Furniss cleared the bases with a three-run into the Alabama bullpen. The homer gave Rabe a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning.
Alabama broke up the no-hitter in the sixth when Vaughn singled. Bryce Fowler was hit by a pitch to put two on and Rabe faced some stress. A ground ball to Utermark was thrown to second and Decker made the play for a key force out. That was followed by a strikeout of Brady Neal to end the inning.
