No. 17 Ole Miss used a five-run sixth inning to rally past the North Alabama Lions on Wednesday night to win 8-5.
Ole Miss (12-2) and North Alabama were in a rain delay in the sixth for an hour and ten minutes.
North Alabama (7-6) jumped out to an early 1-0 advantage after a solo home run by Dylan Coleman.
The Rebels starter Marko Sipila worked around the home run in the first and retired the next seven in a row with five strikeouts in a row. He finished the night going 3.0 complete innings with one run on a hit, no walks, and seven strikeouts.
“Excited for him,” Coach Mike Bianco said. “We tried to get him a scheduled start earlier, but it didn’t work out.”
North Alabama’s starter, Jake Boynar, kept the Rebels offense off the scoreboard for the first two frames. Boynar worked 3.0 innings, allowed a run on a hit with two walks and five strikeouts.
In the third, Tristan Bissetta tied the game on a solo home run. His home run left the bat at 113 mph.
UNA retook the lead in the fourth on Petey Craska’s solo home run.
Bianco made the call to the bullpen in the fourth for Owen Hancock. Hancock tossed 2.0 innings, surrendered three runs (two earned) on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
The Lions added two more runs at the top of the sixth to go up 4-1.
Ole Miss brought in JP Robertson in the sixth, with runners at first and second. Robertson tossed an inning allowed no runs on a hit with two strikeouts. He picked up the win to move to 2-0 on the season.
In the sixth, Walker Hooks came in after the rain delay. Hooks worked 1.1 innings, allowed one run on a hit with a walk and three strikeouts.
Landon Koenig came in during the seventh. Koenig worked 1.2 innings with no runs on three hits with four strikeouts to pick up his second save of the season.
“I thought we pitched well the entire game,” Bianco said.
In the home half of the sixth, Dom Decker got the inning started with a walk. A few batters later, Will Furniss brought him into score on a single down the line. Collin Reuter tied the game on a base knock to left. Brayden Randle delivered a single up the middle that scored Reuter. Brett Moseley scored on a base knock by Cannon Goldin.
“Proud of the way they responded (in the sixth),” Bianco said. ” To get the lead and to extend it again.”
The Lions scored a run in the seventh inning on a double by Alex Wade that scored Jackson Westmoreland.
In the seventh, Ole Miss answered with two runs by Decker and Bissetta on a hit by Furniss and an infield fly by Hayden Federico.
Bissetta finished the game going 1-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored, and an RBI.
Ole Miss pitchers retired 19 North Alabama sluggers by strikeout.
Ole Miss returns to action on Friday as host to the Evansville Aces in a three-game set. The first pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. and can be streamed on SEC Network+.
