Utermark's home runs, Kelly and Gibson pitching gives Ole Miss 7-1 win over Memphis

After a somewhat disappointing weekend in Houston the Ole Miss baseball team started their quest to regroup and get back on the winning track with an outing against Memphis Tuesday night.

It’s no secret that Rebel coach Mike Bianco left the Lone Star state frustrated after his team, 9-0 prior to the three-game tournament and 10-2 after, with his squad’s play. In fact, after Coastal Carolina jumped on the Rebels like a pit bull on a Yorkie Sunday, he called the effort “crappy baseball.”

Alas, the salve of a win. . . .

The Rebels bounced back in the winner’s circle with a 7-1 win over the Tigers on the strength of a pair of two-run homers by Judd Utermark, a solo shot by DH Topher Jones, errorless fielding (for a change) and solid pitching by starter Owen Kelly and reliever Grayson Gibson, a true freshman from Tampa, FL., who retired the first 11 Tigers he faced before hitting one, who he promptly picked off first.

Ole Miss didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard on offense with only six hits on the night and they still left too many runners in scoring position, but the game was never in doubt thanks to Utermark’s power surge and the combined pitching effort that limited Memphis to just one run in the first and three hits for the night.

We don’t want to slight Kelly, who started the game and put up a competitive effort with four innings, the run and the three hits the Tigers had, but the man of the hour on the mound was the frosh, Gibson.

“Grayson was really good. How could you not be pleased with what he did? Faced the minimum in four innings. I think it was only the third time we had put up four zeros in a row this season,” said coach Mike Bianco.

Gibson was all smiles facing the media after the game.

“I was very comfortable out there. My fastball command was really good and I trusted my defense,” said Gibson. “I was glad I picked off the runner I hit so I could face the minimum for four innings. I’ve always had a good pickoff move, but coach Joel Mangrum has made it better.”

Grayson said he is learning quickly the quality of college hitters.

“You can’t relax anywhere in the lineup. In high school if you get past the first three or four batters you know you are going to be OK. That’s not the case in college. Everyone can swing it,” he continued.

Now the power, mainly Utermark.

Gibson said he watched Judd’s first homer from the bullpen and “I thought it was going to go over the moon.”

Not quite, but it was 413 feet.

“I didn’t even look how far it was. I knew it felt good off the bat, so I just put my head down and ran the bases,” Judd noted. “There’s only one guy who has hit it over the back fence – Kemp Alderman. Mine hit the back fence I was told, so I’m still chasing Kemp.”

The second one was dead center field and right at the 400 foot mark as well.

Utermark is climbing the all time home run list at Ole Miss, but he’s not really concerned with that.

“I know this is the boring answer, but we are trying to win another national championship. I’m not worried about records and I just tell myself and everyone on the team that we have to take it one day at a time,” Judd explained. “We have to take care of business every day. Ole Miss football says it the best – one game at a time.

“We left Houston a little angry. We know we were a better team than we showed. There’s not much we can do about it now so we just have to move forward and take one at a time. With the travel and playing so much, we haven’t had much practice time and there are some things we have to work out like being better hitters with runners in scoring position. We will get there.”

And the errorless defense – a step in the right direction for a team that has had some defensive difficulties, despite being 11-2.

“We played really good defense,” said Bianco. “We played a bunt well and a pickoff well among other good plays. We needed to play better in the field and we did. That was good to see a clean defensive game.”

The Rebels were not real good with runners in scoring position, but Bianco said he’s not too concerned with that right now.

“I always thought you were OK if your average with runners in scoring position was better than your overall average and ours is,” he explained. “We are batting something like .319 with runners in scoring position and .295 overall.

“We didn’t have many hits tonight, but we had some walks and men hit by a pitch that scored a run or two and that counts with us, but not hits with runners in scoring position. I get the concern from outside the program, but I am not worried about it at this stage of the season and with what we have done.”

Memphis limped back to the Bluff City with a 3-9 record.