College baseball: Rebels’ Harris ties SEC record with four homers; USM better than USA; Hogs crush Dogs

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, May 6, 2023

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Calvin Harris carved a path through the Missouri Tigers and into the record books on Saturday.

The Ole Miss catcher tied a Southeastern Conference record and set a school record by hitting four home runs as the Rebels beat Missouri 20-14 in the finale of a weekend series.

Harris hit a two-run home run in the third inning, a grand slam in the fourth, and two more two-run shots in the sixth and ninth innings. He finished with 10 RBIs, which also tied an Ole Miss record.

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Harris become only the third player in SEC history to hit four home runs in a game. Florida’s J.J. Schwarz did it in 2015, and Kentucky’s Bill Sandry in 1982.

The SEC single-game record for RBIs is 11, by Florida’s Preston Tucker (2009) and Mississippi State’s Jason Nappi (2008). Harris tied Charley Conerly’s Ole Miss record of 10, set in 1947.

Peyton Chatagnier also hit two home runs for Ole Miss (25-23, 6-18 SEC), and finished 4-for-5 with three RBIs and four runs scored. Jacob Gonzalez was 2-for-4 with a double and five RBIs.

Luke Mann and Hank Zeisler homered and had four RBIs apiece for Missouri (27-20, 7-17). The Tigers hit a season-high six home runs in all, as the teams combined for 11 home runs, 34 runs and 31 hits. The two pitching staffs also walked 15 batters and hit six.

Six of the walks — as well as two hit batters — came in the fourth inning, when both Harris and Mann hit grand slams for their respective teams. The two homers were the only hits in an inning in which the Rebels and Tigers combined for 10 runs.

Ole Miss posted a season-high run total and salvaged a win after dropping the first two games of the series. The Rebels will return to Oxford to start an SEC series vs. Auburn on Thursday at 7 p.m. The opener will be televised on ESPNU.

Southern Miss 6, South Alabama 4
Slade Wilks hit a tiebreaking solo home run in the fifth inning and scored another run in the third, Carson Paetow drove in two runs, and Southern Miss (31-15, 16-7 Sun Belt Conference) beat South Alabama in the middle game of their weekend series in Hattiesburg.

Wilks’ home run gave Southern Miss a 4-3 lead. Christopher Sargent followed with a double and scored on Danny Lynch’s single to push it to 5-3.

After South Alabama (23-23, 11-12) got a run back in the top of the seventh, Reece Ewing doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Paetow to make it 6-4.

From there, Will Armistead and Justin Storm combined for two innings of scoreless relief to close it out. Storm got the last two outs in the ninth inning to earn his eighth save.

Southern Miss ran its winning streak to nine games, and improved its record at home to 23-4. It’ll go for its second straight Sun Belt series sweep in Sunday’s finale at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

Arkansas 14, Mississippi State 2
Kendall Diggs hit a two-run home run and Caleb Cali added a three-run shot in the seventh inning as Arkansas (35-12, 16-7 SEC) run-ruled Mississippi State (24-22, 6-17) Saturday in Starkville.

Diggs finished the game 3-for-4 with five RBIs. He singled in two runs in the first inning and drove in another in the third. Brady Slavens’ solo home run in the top of the sixth put the Razorbacks ahead 9-0, and their big seventh inning helped finish it.

Dakota Jordan hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to bring in both of Mississippi State’s runs. The Bulldogs lost their fifth game in a row, and will try to avoid a second straight series sweep when they face Arkansas again Sunday at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.