A beautiful night of college baseball delivered a Thursday night showdown at Swayze Field in Oxford, Mississippi, between the 15th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats and the Ole Miss Rebels as the two met in one of the most anticipated Southeastern Conference series of the weekend. You had the Rebels coming into the game looking to forget going 1-2 last weekend against Texas, while Kentucky came into the weekend series looking to carry the mometum from sweeping Alabama at home last weekend. 

Ole Miss had a get-right game on Tuesday afternoon with a midweek 9-5 victory over Austin Peay. While Kentucky did not have a midweek game due to the weather, the matchup with Marshall was postponed. 

Ole Miss opened the bottom of the first inning by striking first with a two-run shot from Tristan Bissetta, taking an early 2-0 lead over the Wildcats.  Tristan Bissetta would send a solo shot in the bottom of the 5th inning, adding a run to the Ole Miss lead, making it 3-0 in favor of the Rebels. Brayden Randle would score Austin Fawley with a triple to right field to extend the Rebels’ lead to 4-0 at the end of the 6th inning. Will Furniss would add an insurance run of his own with a solo shot to left field to make it 5-0 Rebels in the bottom of the 8th inning. 

Friday night was the best outing of the season for Hunter Elliott, as he didn’t allow Kentucky to get to him early, got in his groove, and never really looked back. Elliott would go 6.1 innings, allowing four hits, no runs, and striking out six Kentucky batters with a total pitch count of 94. For Kentucky, Ben Cleaver would struggle early on, being replaced in the 4th after 3.2 innings pitched. Cleaver gave up four hits and two runs while striking out four Ole Miss batters. 

Credit to Ole Miss on Friday night, every time Kentucky would get within striking distance with runners on base, the Rebels would bend but never break. It wasn’t perfect baseball, but it got the Rebels a game one victory, and now they’ll go for the series on Friday night. 

First pitch for game two between the Wildcats and Rebels will be Friday night at 6:30.