Rebels one win from super regional

Published 10:15 am Monday, June 2, 2014

Ole Miss pitcher Aaron Greenwood (44) celebrates after striking out  Washington’s Alex Schmidt to end the Rebels’ 2-1 win in the NCAA Tournament’s Oxford Regional on Sunday. Ole Miss can earn a trip to the super regionals by beating Washington again this afternoon. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman)

Ole Miss pitcher Aaron Greenwood (44) celebrates after striking out Washington’s Alex Schmidt to end the Rebels’ 2-1 win in the NCAA Tournament’s Oxford Regional on Sunday. Ole Miss can earn a trip to the super regionals by beating Washington again this afternoon. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman)

Ole Miss is one tiny step away from reclaiming a spot among college baseball’s elite — and, perhaps, hosting the biggest party Swayze Field has ever seen.

The Rebels beat Washington 2-1 in the winners’ bracket of the NCAA Tournament’s Oxford Regional on Sunday afternoon to advance to the regional title game for the seventh time in 10 years.

“It was a great college baseball game,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “One of those games that you’ve been seeing across the country. It was a low-scoring game, where every pitch and every play seems to matter. We made enough pitches and got enough hits.”

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Ole Miss (43-18) will host Washington (41-16-1) again today at 2 p.m. in the championship game, and can clinch its first super regional berth since 2009 with a victory. If Washington wins, the teams will play again at 6 p.m.

If Ole Miss does seal the deal today, it could also host archrival Mississippi State in a super regional next weekend.

Mississippi State lost 14-8 to Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday night, and will play the Ragin’ Cajuns in a winner-take-all regional championship game today. If Louisiana-Lafayette wins, it’ll host the super regional against Ole Miss or Washington.

The Rebels’ first order of business, however, is finding a way to once again beat a Washington team that gave them all they could handle on Sunday.

Washington’s Jeff Brigham held Ole Miss to two runs in seven strong innings. He walked three batters, scattered seven hits and struck out four.

“He predominantly threw fastballs. Usually if we get a guy like that, we can handle the fastballs, regardless of what the speed is. We really struggled,” Bianco said. “We struggled to get the barrel to it and bunch some at-bats together. He was terrific.”

So were Ole Miss pitchers Christian Trent and Aaron Greenwood.

Trent threw six shutout innings before giving up a run in the seventh and giving way to Greenwood.

Greenwood inherited a mess. Washington had runners at second and third with one out, with the Rebels clinging to a 2-1 lead. Greenwood, however, escaped the jam with a strikeout and a line out, worked around some trouble in the eighth, and retired the side in order in the ninth for his fourth save of the season.

“After the mound visit with Coach B, he just told us we really needed a strikeout, to hold the guy at third base and to not really let them put the ball in play,” Greenwood said. “I was just thinking, ‘Nothing good to hit, low in the zone and get ahead early.’ That was the main thing.”

Trent and Greenwood combined to allow six hits and only one walk, and struck out 10 batters — six by Trent (9-0) and four by Greenwood.

Ole Miss’ offense was provided by J.B. Woodman and Auston Bousfield. Woodman put the Rebels on top 1-0 with an RBI double in the fourth inning, and Bousfield hit a solo home run in the fifth for what turned out to be the winning run.

The early lead got the crowd of 9,599 revved up, and the Rebels eventually sent them home happy.

“J.B., all year long but especially the last few weeks, had some big at-bats like that. Certainly that one was a big double down the line to score the first run and get the crowd into it,” Bianco said. “One of the disappointing things is when you have a crowd like that, waiting for something to happen. Last night, we were able to get the crowd into it immediately. The crowd was terrific today, even in one of those pitching-type duels.”