Mizzou Tigers stun Ole Miss for first SEC baseball tournament win in 9 years

Oftentimes in SEC play, a starting pitcher’s performance can be the key to success. Things like endurance, command of the zone, and limiting base runners early help determine momentum.

For the Missouri Tigers, Josh McDevitt has been as solid as they come all year, so it was no surprise the coaching staff turned to him with the season on the line.

The other starter in Tuesday’s game between No. 17 Ole Miss and Mizzou in the first round of the SEC Tournament was Wil Libbert, who transferred to the Rebels this past offseason after starting 11 games for Mizzou last year.

Both starters were reasonably sharp, but the bats generally prevailed Tuesday in a back-and-forth game in Hoover, Alabama. Mizzou, the No. 16 seed, pulled off the 10-8 upset over No. 9-seed Ole Miss. It was the Tigers’ first SEC Tournament victory since 2017.

In his first appearance against his former team, Libbert faced just three batters in the first inning. He issued a one-out walk to Kam Durnin, but picked him off seconds later with a good lefty move. Durnin appeared to have trouble gaining traction in the thick, moist dirt surrounding the first base bag

In the bottom of the inning Josh McDevitt served up a low, outside fastball to leadoff hitter Dom Decker. Decker turned the pitch the other way, as left fielder Jamal George sprinted towards the foul pole, but ultimately watched it carry over the fence. McDevitt then hit Tristan Bisetta with a pitch, but recovered to get the next three batters.

Another Ole Miss solo shot, this time by Austin Fawley in the second inning, extended the lead. Fawley blasted an outside fastball to the opposite field over Pierre Seals in right.

While the Tigers struggled all season to rally from early deficits, they would not let the trend define this game.

Mizzou struck back in the top of the third, following a leadoff single for Seals, the No. 9 hitter. Durnin tied the game with his eighth home run of the year, an absolute rocket to left center that traveled an estimated 405 feet.

Decker gave Mizzou a scare in the bottom half by pushing another high fly ball down the left field line, a ball similar to his earlier home run. This one was run down by Jamal George in the corner. A two-out walk sent Judd Utermark to first to bring up Will Furniss. He sent a hard line drive to center field that looked like it might be extra bases, but the walking highlight reel, Kaden Peer, made a diving catch.

JP Robertson entered the game for Ole Miss after four innings of work by Libbert. He greeted Durnin with a five-pitch walk. After reaching base for the third time in the game, Durnin dodged a pickoff attempt and stole second. Ward followed with another walk. Mateo Serna blooped a single between the second baseman and right fielder. It landed inches inside the foul line to score Durnin.

Landon Waters, the shutdown reliever with a 2.45 ERA, entered the game for the Rebels to face left-handed center fielder Kaden Peer with the bases loaded. Peer, who had just one homer and 10 RBI on the season, launched a rising line drive with two strikes toward the fence in left center. Daniel Pacella and Hayden Federico watched helplessly as the ball landed just over the fence, a grand slam.

The blast was just the second grand slam in the tournament for Mizzou since the Tigers joined the SEC ahead of the 2013 season.

Bisetta laced a double that was bobbled by Peer in center in the fifth, allowing Brayden Randle to score without a play. Federico drove in two with a single through the middle, and Owen Paino followed with an RBI ground-rule double to make it a 7-6 ballgame. Fawley appeared to work a full count after a high fastball was called for ball three. Serna, for the third time in the inning, tapped his helmet to indicate an ABS challenge of the call.

For the third time in the inning, he was right. Fawley walked back to the dugout after a stellar equence of strike zone recognition by the Tigers’ catcher.

“If players are going to be able to challenge that, well, we’re going to have to put in some really strict guidelines on when you can, what the situations are that you can and who can and who can’t,” Mizzou coach Kerrick Jackson said on May 9 regarding the implementation of the challenge system for the tournament.

Teams that challenge correctly retain their three challenges. Clearly, Serna had clearance to issue the challenges, and he used them well, going 4-for-4 in the game through five frames.

“He was the one guy that, from a defensive perspective, had the green light,” Jackson said on the SEC+ broadcast after the game. “We talked about it. We know that he knows the zone. He works hard back there.”

Jase Woita turned around a two-strike pitch in the sixth and left it in nearly the same spot as Peer’s slam, extending the lead to 8-6.

McDevitt returned to the mound in the bottom half, and got his eighth strikeout on another successful challenge from Serna. He would leave after a two-out double by Decker. McDevitt’s line at the time of his departure was 5 2/3 innings, eight hits, six runs, and eight strikeouts on 98 pitches. Juan Villareal came in to slam the door of the sixth with a swinging strikeout of Bisetta on a slider.

After a scoreless sixth on both sides, Federico launched a two run blast to left, tying the game at eight runs apiece in the bottom of the seventh.

Durnin scored the go ahead run from first in the eighth on a hit-and-run single by Blaise Wars, and an error in right by Bisetta. The Tigers added another on a Serna single.

Freshman Eli Skidmore came up clutch in the eighth, using a slider to get Decker and changeup to whiff Bisetta, and locking up Utermark on another changeup to strike out the side.

He would pick up back-to-back strikeouts in the ninth, before getting a ground ball from Furniss to end the game. With the 10-8 win, The Tigers will move on to play Mississippi State Wednesday at 9:30 in round two of the tournament.

Serna had an excellent game, picking up three of the Tigers’ 14going 7-for-8 on ABS challenges against home plate umpire Jason Bradley.

“Just kind of trusting it,” Serna said on the SEC+ broadcast. “In the early spring, I wasn’t playing, so I was umpiring our scrimmages, so I think that kind of helped me out a little bit, and I was just trusting it, to be honest.”

Every starting hitter picked up at least one hit, with Woita, Jordan, and Durnin also picking up multi-hit performances.

“You know, we just never got down on ourselves,” Woita said on TigerTalk radio after the game. “We knew they were going to throw punches, but it was going to be who threw the last punch and the hardest punch.”

“I think we’ve been up and down all year, but when we play good baseball and we have that fire in us, we can play with anybody in the country,” Jackson said. “We’ve shown that, and so guys came out today, we talked about the plan, we wanted to execute offensively.”

Skidmore, who pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts, earned the win.

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