Huge day by Harris paves way for Rebels' win at Mizzou
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Ole Miss' Calvin Harris set a new program record for home runs in a game as he hit four long balls in the Rebels' 20-12 win over Missouri Saturday afternoon.
The catcher also tied the program record for RBI in a game with a career-high 10 runs driven in. Harris went 4-for-6 with his program-record four home runs and 10 RBI. He also scored a career-high four times.
The Tigers and the Rebels combined for 34 runs, 31 hits, 18 extra-base hits, and 12 home runs in what was an offense-filled series finale.
Peyton Chatagnier went 4-for-5 with two home runs and three RBI. Will Furniss went 3-for-5 and Jacob Gonzalez went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and five RBI.
Missouri scored the first three runs of the game, putting up two in the first inning and one in the second. A Rebel throwing error with the bases loaded allowed the first run to score and a bad throw on an attempted double play brought home the second. Their third run came on a Matt Garcia solo home run in the second inning to make it 3-0.
After Ole Miss could not get anything going in the first two innings, Gatlin opened the third with a leadoff double to center field, his first career hit in a Rebel uniform. He would score from second in the next at-bat as Jacob Gonzalez hit a double down the left field line.
Harris tied the game at 3-3 with a deep shot over the right field wall, his first home run of the game.
Missouri answered back in the bottom half of the third inning with another solo shot to retake the lead at 4-3. The teams scored 10 combined runs on just two hits in the fourth inning as they traded grand slams in between eight free bases issued by the pitching staffs.
The Rebels put up six runs in their half of the inning as Gonzalez drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game and Ethan Lege knocked in a run with an RBI-groundout to take the lead. After a walk from Kemp Alderman to reload the bases, Harris hit his second home run of the game, a grand slam to center field to put Ole Miss up 9-4.
Missouri loaded the bases quickly in their half of the inning and with one out, Luke Mann swatted his fourth home run of the weekend to cut the Rebel lead to just one run.
Chatagnier joined the slugfest in the fifth inning, launching a home run off the scoreboard in left field to make it 10-8. John Kramer singled in the next at-bat and moved to second after Gatlin was hit by a pitch. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and Kramer scored on a sacrifice fly by Gonzalez to make the score 11-8.
The Tigers got one run back in the bottom of the fifth on a solo home run by Ty Wilmsmeyer to lead off the inning.
Alderman opened the Rebel half of the sixth inning with a single back up the middle, setting up Harris for his third home run of the day. He deposited this one over the right field fence in almost the exact same spot as his first.
Ole Miss kept the hits coming in the inning as Will Furniss and Chatagnier both singled and Gatlin was hit by a pitch for the third time in the game. Gonzalez picked up two more RBI bringing home Chatagnier and Furniss with a single to right field, making it 15-9.
Wilmsmeyer hit his second solo home run of the day in the bottom of the sixth and Missouri added two more runs in the seventh to climb their way back in at 15-12.
After tacking on one more run in the eighth, Harris and Chatagnier both went yard in the ninth. Harris hit his program-record fourth home run over the batter's eye in center field, his third two-RBI shot of the day. Chatagnier hit his second big fly after a Furniss single against the shift to make it 20-12 Ole Miss.
Missouri rallied for two more runs in the bottom of the ninth with their sixth home run of the day, but Ole Miss was able to close out the game and take home the 20-14 win.