Ole Miss Baseball Wins Series With No. 1 Florida

OXFORD, Miss. (WCBI Sports) – The Ole Miss baseball team took down the No. 1 team in the country Saturday in Oxford. It’s a feat that the Rebels are making seem almost routine.

Ole Miss won two of three games against Florida at Swayze Field with a split of the doubleheader Saturday, marking the fourth time in the last four tries that the Rebels have won a home series against the nation’s top-ranked team.

Ole Miss (13-10, 3-3 SEC) won game one Saturday 5-2 before falling 8-4 to Florida (20-5, 3-3 SEC) in the final game of the series.

“We’re proud that we won two out of three,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “I’m proud of the way we played overall for the weekend against a very, very good Florida team. We’re getting better. We have shown that the last couple of weeks.”

The victory marks the 12th time in the past 18 series that the Rebels have beaten top-10 teams, dating back to 2003. The upset took place in front of 9,761 fans at Swayze Field, the 14th-largest crowd in program history.

The Rebels wrap up their six-game home stretch with a doubleheader against UAB Tuesday. First pitch for game one is set for 11 a.m. CT. Game two will follow around 2 p.m. CT.

Senior Sikes Orvis blasted his sixth home run of the season in the second inning of game one, driving in three runs in the process. That’s all sophomore pitcher Brady Bramlett and the Rebels’ staff needed to finish off the Gators. Bramlett earned the win, going six innings and giving up two runs, one earned.

“It was a great weekend for us,” Bramlett said. “We grew up a lot this week. We’re finding our character and we’re starting to roll with it.”

Freshman third baseman Will Golsan had a career game at the plate, going 3-for-5 with an RBI. It’s the former New Hope Trojan’s fourth-straight multi-hit game.

“He’s been aggressive and getting good swings off,” said Bianco of Golsan. “He’s one of the guys in the lineup, like Sikes, that continues to be aggressive and swing, and he’s had some success.”

Ole Miss was not able to make it a sweep Saturday, losing by four runs in the finale. Freshman right-hander Will Stokes suffered the loss in his first-career start. He gave up five runs on seven hits with a walk and a strikeout in just 2.2 innings.

The Rebels finished with nine hits, led by freshman Joe Wainhouse, making his second career start, who went 2-for-4 in the game.