Ole Miss upset by Missouri in first round of SEC Tournament
HOOVER, Alabama – Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco knows sulking over Tuesday’s outcome isn’t going to change a thing. There is Rebels postseason baseball left to play. It will just almost certainly come on the road.
After surrendering a five-run fifth-inning lead to the Rebels, 16th-seeded Missouri broke an 8-8 tie with a two-run eighth inning, as the Tigers defeated the ninth-seeded Rebels 10-8 in the first round of the SEC Tournament at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Sitting firmly on the bubble of hosting an NCAA Tournament regional following a 15-15 regular season in SEC play, the Rebels likely needed to win a few games at the SEC Tournament to get back into hosting contention. Instead the Rebels (36-21) now appear destined for a No.
2 seed when the brackets are revealed on May 25. It will be the program’s second straight NCAA Tournament appearance after missing the previous two. “Yeah, we're disappointed.
Obviously, nobody wants to come here and lose,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “ … Instead of being miserable, we'll leave here in a couple of hours and we'll get back to Oxford and we'll start to prepare. ” The Rebels trailed 7-2 Tuesday heading to the bottom of the fifth inning following a grand slam from Missouri’s Kaden Peer – part of a five-run fifth that featured just two hits.
The Rebels responded with four runs in the bottom of the fifth and, after the Tigers added a run in the sixth, tied the game 8-8 in the seventh on sophomore outfielder Hayden Federico’s two-run home run. Missouri (24-30) retook the lead in the eighth on a single from Blaize Ward and error from senior right fielder Tristan Bissetta and added another run on a Mateo Serna RBI single. The Rebels were retired in order in the ninth.
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