OXFORD — In a battle of two of the nation’s best closers, the guy with the busted nose came out on top.

In pregame warm-ups, Ole Miss closer Jake Morgan took his eye off his long-toss partner and caught the ball squarely on his nose.

“Just wasn’t paying attention,” Morgan guffed after Ole Miss won a thrilling, 4-3, 12th-inning decision over Virginia in Game 1 of the NCAA Tournament’s Oxford Super Regional. Pitching with gauze in his nose to stop the bleeding, Morgan went three nerve-racking innings to gain the win. He allowed one hit, one walk and no runs.

“He was bleeding during the game and that was a concern for me,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “It was still dripping out there when he went in in the 10th. He just gutted it out. Broken nose and all.”

Morgan said he took a painkiller and felt fine.

He also felt a lot better than his counterpart, Virginia’s Kevin Arico. Arico had an impressive ERA of 2.12 and 11 saves, but gave up Matt Smith’s walk-off home run in the 12th and took the loss. Arico also blew a save chance in the ninth inning when he gave up a one-out, RBI single to Logan Power that tied the game at 3-3.

“It’s pretty simple. I threw a fastball, it was up and he (Smith) did what any good hitter will do. He crushed it,” Arico said.

Virginia coach Brian O’Conner tried to put a good spin on the gut-wrenching loss that put the Cavaliers on the brink of elimination.

“We’ve had difficult one run losses, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, but this team responded after each one of those,” O’Conner said. “This was a great college baseball game. It was unfortunate we had to lose, but we’ll respond.”

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com