Virginia denies Ole Miss|Rebels fail at Omaha bid for fourth time in five years
Published 12:00 am Monday, June 8, 2009
OXFORD — For the fourth time in five years, Ole Miss has been left at the super regional altar.
Virginia will make its first trip to the College World Series after beating Ole Miss 5-1 on Sunday afternoon in a decisive Game 3 of the Oxford Super Regional.
Using a deep bullpen, strong defense and aggressive baserunning, the Cavaliers (48-13-1) battled back to win the last two games of the best-of-three series after dropping Game 1 on Friday. That was an all-too-familiar pattern for Ole Miss. It was the third time the Rebels have had a 1-0 series lead at Oxford, only to lose in three games. The first time was in 2005 to Texas and it happened again in 2006 to Miami. The Rebels were also swept by Arizona State in the super regional round in 2007.
“What can you say, you had two teams that battled hard for three straight days. You just have to tip your hat to the University of Virginia. They played better than us. They were able to put together that three-run inning and for the last two days we couldn’t stop them on the bases. I thought both teams pitched terrifically, but they were better at stringing together hits and we weren’t able to bunch hits together,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said.
For Virginia coach Brian O’Connor, the trip to Omaha will be a homecoming.
“Just an unbelievable accomplishment. We executed our gameplan the whole weekend and now our guys will get an unbelievable experience,” said O’Connor who is a Council Bluffs, Iowa native and played at Creighton University in Omaha. “It’s one of the rewards of coaching but this is not about me, it’s about these guys. It’s for the guys who wear the uniform and they are ready to compete.”
Ole Miss finished its season with a 44-20 record.
Three Cavalier relievers combined to keep the Rebels scoreless over the final seven innings. They had just one baserunner in each of the last three innings. Former Vicksburg High star Jordan Henry doubled, walked, and scored a run in the first inning for the Rebels, but they didn’t score again.
“Virginia has a great pitching staff and they mixed it up all day,” Henry said. “They threw their offspeed stuff for strikes and did a good job. It’s upsetting to lose this, but at the same time, I’m happy we made it this far.”
The two times the Rebels had chances to add to their run total, Virginia executed and the Rebels didn’t.
A blown bunt in the fourth inning caused Kyle Henson, who was on second, to be tagged out at third. In the sixth, Matt Smith hit a line drive with a man on and it was caught for an easy double play.
“That line drive double play was big for us,” Virginia’s Phil Gosselin said.
Offensively, Virginia was led by Steven Proscia with three hits, including an RBI double in the eighth that made it 5-1. He also scored a run in the key, three-run fifth.
Tyler Wilson threw 3 1/3 innings of relief to get the win. Nathan Baker took the loss after going the first five innings for Ole Miss and left with a 4-1 deficit.
Henry was certainly pumped early. He opened the game by lacing a hit into right-center and never stopped after rounding first. He slid safely into second for a leadoff double and later scored on a two-out single by Matt Smith.
Virginia came back behind its aggressive base running. Gosselin reached on a single with one out in the fourth and then stole second. After a walk to Dan Grovatt loaded the bases, John Hicks tied the game with a sacrifice fly to right.
In the fifth, Proscia singled to left, stole second and then scored on Franco Valdes’ hit to center to break the tie. An error at short moved Valdes to third and allowed John Barr to reach. Barr then stole second for the Cavs’ fifth theft of the game. A fly out to Henry in center scored Valdes and Barr came in on Gosselin’s hit to right to make it 4-1.
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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com