Louisville finishes midweek sweep of Rebels

Published 6:50 pm Wednesday, March 13, 2019

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ole Miss left the Bluegrass State feeling very blue indeed.

Louisville scored five runs in the first inning, Alex Binelas belted a two-run home run in the third, and the Cardinals held off a late surge by Ole Miss to win 10-8 Wednesday.

Louisville (13-4) swept the two-game midweek series between the college baseball powers. Ole Miss (12-5) will host Alabama in a three-game series beginning Friday as Southeastern Conference play gets under way.

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The series with Louisville was a chance for the Rebels to pick up a couple of signature non-conference wins, but they came back empty handed. Louisville won 4-3 in 10 innings on Tuesday and jumped on the Rebels in game two.

After Ole Miss scored twice in the top of the first inning, Binelas drove in two runs with a single in the bottom half to put Louisville ahead for good.

Binelas added a two-run homer in the third inning to make it 8-2 and finished the game 2-for-4 with four RBIs.

Ole Miss, though, rallied late to make a game of it. Tyler Keenan drove in two runs in the top of the eighth inning, and then in the ninth Cooper Johnson and Tim Elko hit back-to-back home runs — Johnson’s was a two-run shot — to cut it to 10-8.

The rally petered out there. Louisville reliever Bobby Miller got Jacob Adams to ground out and Grae Kessinger to fly out to end the game without further incident.

Louisville won for the eighth time in nine games despite its six pitchers issuing 13 walks.

Johnson and Keenan both had two RBIs for Ole Miss, while Johnson and Cole Zabowksi had two hits apiece.

Ole Miss starting pitcher Houston Roth (0-1) was tagged with the loss after allowing five runs, three earned, and four hits in only two-thirds of an inning.