Missed opportunities
By Jay Jenkins
Published: June 6, 2009

OXFORD, Miss. — It had the makings of a Virginia thriller of epic proportions.

With the heroics of a bloody-nosed relief pitcher and later a captivating game-ending ping, it quickly turned into a horror flick.

Ole Miss first baseman Matt Smith belted the first pitch he was thrown in the 12th inning from Virginia reliever Kevin Arico over the wall in left field, propelling the Rebels to a 4-3 walk-off win as 9,213 fans roared for the end of the first contest of the Oxford Super Regional.

“It sort of felt like the ground was shaking,” Smith said. “I was so pumped up.

“The place just went nuts. I don’t remember much after that. I kind of remember coming home and I was on the ground with the team on top of me.”

The sophomore’s eighth homer of the season moved Ole Miss (44-18) within a victory of its first trip to the College World Series since 1972. Virginia (46-13-1), a loss away from being eliminated, had an eight-game winning streak snapped and must win the final two games in the regional to advance to Omaha, Neb., a slate that includes today’s contest at noon.

“Wow. It was one heck of a college baseball game,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “Unfortunately, we came out on the losing end of it. Nobody deserved to lose that game.”

Virginia certainly had its chances to take the opener.

In fact, the Cavaliers led 3-2 entering the bottom of the ninth before a misplayed grounder by rookie second baseman Keith Werman and a hit batter set the stage for the Rebels’ game-tying, one-out single from Logan Power.

“It was just a back-up slider,” said Arico, who entered in the ninth with both runners on base. “I missed my pitch and he yanked it on me.”

After Ole Miss tied the contest, reliever Jake Morgan was summoned from the bullpen to keep the game knotted despite having broken his nose prior to the game. The injury came during a routine pre-game throwing exercise from 70 feet away.

“It was still bleeding out on the mound,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “It was dripping down his face. It was probably great for television.

“He looked like Rocky out there, but he pitched like Rocky as well.”

Morgan, loaded up on painkillers, worked three full innings to earn the win, fanning three batters and allowing just one hit and a walk.

The right-handed sophomore also worked out of a potential jam in the 12th by retiring Virginia third baseman Steven Proscia on a fly ball that was hit on a 3-0 pitch to the base of the wall in center, stranding two of Virginia’s 11 runners left on base.

“[Proscia] put a good charge into the ball. It just wasn’t enough,” O’Connor said. “We have played aggressive baseball all year long. Reality is, whether he walks or we get a hit, we need a hit to score a run.

“Unfortunately, it was about five feet short.”

Minutes later, Smith connected on a blast that did not come up short.

“It’s pretty simple. I threw a fastball, left it up in the zone over the heart of the plate,” said Arico, who dropped to 2-3 on the season. “[Smith] did what any good hitter is going to do — he hit it hard.

“He crushed it.”

Virginia opened the scoring in the second inning as Proscia raced home from first after catcher Franco Valdes ripped a double off Ole Miss starter Phillip Irwin.

After the Rebels answered with a run in the fourth, Virginia took a two-run cushion at 3-1 as Jarrett Parker and Phil Gosselin provided back-to-back run-scoring hits.

“They got to my curveball a little bit in the fifth inning,” said Irwin, who allowed nine hits over seven innings. “They are a great hitting ball club. They hit a lot of mistakes and they barreled a lot of balls today.

“Fortunately enough, the wind was blowing in and I got a couple of fly outs to the warning track.”

Ole Miss, the regular season champ from the Southeastern Conference, cut into the deficit in the sixth with a lone run that ultimately chased Virginia starter Danny Hultzen from the game. The rookie worked 5.1 innings, allowing five hits and a walk while striking out five.

“I thought Danny really had a really good fastball today and he mixed in his good change-up,” O’Connor said. “It’s a challenging environment to put a freshman in, but I gave him the ball because I knew that he could handle it. He has had great poise all year.”

Despite the one-run loss — Virginia’s ninth of the season — O’Connor said that his team merely needed to turn the page and go on a two-game winning streak.

“We have had a lot of difficult losses. It’s baseball,” he said. “We have 13 losses on the year. The Yankees would be happy with that.

“This is what has been so impressive to me about this club. It has been well-documented that there’s a ton of youth on this team. Ninety-five percent of this team will be back next year, but what I did not know was, how would they respond to losses like this. When we have had difficult one-run losses, they have responded every time and been ready to play the next day. They have not rolled over, so I would expect the same thing.”

Virginia, batting as the home team today (and Sunday if needed), will start sophomore RHP Robert Morey (3-0, 2.91 ERA). Ole Miss is slated to counter with sophomore LHP Drew Pomeranz (8-4, 3.46), who struck out 26 batters in two starts in the Oxford Regional last weekend.
 

Ole Miss Walks Off With 4-3 Win Over Virginia in 12
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 06/05/2009

OXFORD, Miss. – Matt Smith hit a walk-off home run on the first pitch of the 12th inning as Ole Miss notched a 4-3 win over the Virginia baseball team Friday in the first game of the NCAA Oxford Super Regional at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field. The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Cavaliers.

The second game of the best-of-three series will be played at noon Saturday on ESPN2, and the Rebels will have an opportunity to clinch the series and earn a trip to the College World Series. Should Virginia win, a deciding third game would be played at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The game drew 9,213 fans – the fifth-largest crowd in stadium history. It also was Virginia’s longest game in time (4:17) and innings this season.

Smith jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Kevin Arico (So., Flemington, N.J.) in the 12th inning and hit it into the crowd in left-center field. It marked the first point in this NCAA tournament that UVa has trailed.

Danny Hultzen (Fr., Bethesda, Md.) started on the mound for Virginia and worked 5.1 innings, allowing two earned runs, five hits and one walk while striking out five. Tyler Wilson (So., Midlothian, Va.) pitched two innings of relief, and Matt Packer (Jr., Germantown, Tenn.) fired an inning before Arico (2-3) tossed 2.2 innings – a career high.

Jake Morgan (4-1) earned the win for Ole Miss with three scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Phillip Irwin started for Ole Miss and tossed seven innings, giving up three earned runs, nine hits and two walks while fanning five.

Jarrett Parker (So., Stafford, Va.) had two hits for the Cavaliers as he tied the school record for hits in a season with 92. He tied Ryan Zimmerman, who had 92 hits in 2005. Phil Gosselin (So., West Chester, Pa.) and Steven Proscia (Fr., Suffern, N.Y.) each had a pair of hits.

After a scoreless first inning in which both teams squandered scoring opportunities, Virginia (46-13-1) notched a second-inning run to start the scoring. Proscia led off with a single up the middle. Two outs later, Franco Valdes (Jr., Miami, Fla.) ripped a double to the right-center gap and Proscia trucked home from first to give UVa the lead.

Ole Miss (44-18) took advantage of a UVa miscue to tie the game in the fourth inning. With one out, Zach Miller hit a high pop up into short right field. All three UVa fielders in the area lost the ball in the high sun and it dropped for a double – Ole Miss’ first hit of the afternoon. After Hultzen struck out Jeremy Travis on three pitches, Kevin Mort ripped a single to center to score Miller with Rebels’ first run.

Virginia came right back with a pair of runs in the fifth inning. Valdes led off with a single and moved to second on a Keith Werman (Fr., Vienna, Va.) sacrifice bunt. He scored on a double to left-center by Parker, who came around on a single to right-center by Gosselin. UVa then loaded the bases on a Hultzen single and Dan Grovatt (So., Tabernacle, N.J.) walk, but Irwin rebounded to get Proscia to foul out and Tyler Cannon (Jr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) to pop out to end the threat and minimize the damage.

Hultzen escaped a jam in the bottom of the fifth. Brent Basham led off with an infield single to third and moved to second on a Proscia throwing error – UVa’s first error in 46 innings dating to May 24 vs. Duke. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runner to third, Hultzen got Logan Power to line out to second and Smith to ground out to short to end the inning.

The Rebels knocked Hultzen from the game in the sixth while scoring once. With one out, Miller singled to center and scored on a double to the left-center wall by Travis.

The Rebels used a ninth-inning rally to knot the score and send the game to extra innings. Evan Button reached on an error to lead off the inning. Basham then was hit by a pitch when attempting to bunt. Packer then forced Jordan Henry to pop up a bunt to Proscia at third for the first out. Arico came on and gave up a game-tying single to Power before striking out Smith and Henson.
 

Error in 9th ultimately dooms Cavaliers
Ole Miss ties the game with an unearned run in the ninth before winning it with a homer in the 12th.

OXFORD, Miss. -- An unearned run enabled Mississippi to force extra innings Friday and the Rebels ended Virginia's eight-game winning streak in the NCAA Oxford Super Regional.

Redshirt sophomore first baseman Matt Smith smacked Kevin Arico's first pitch for a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning, lifting eighth-ranked Ole Miss past the Cavaliers 4-3 before a crowd of 9,213.

It was the ninth loss in 13 one-run games for the Cavaliers, who had gone to extra innings only once previously, a 5-4 loss in 10 innings at Virginia Tech on May 14.

The Rebels (44-18) can clinch a spot in the College World Series when ace Drew Pomerantz takes the mound against the Cavaliers (46-13-1) today at noon at Oxford-University Stadium.

Fifth-ranked Virginia needs a win to force a third and deciding game, tentatively scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m.

Defense and pitching had been instrumental in UVa championships in the ACC tournament and Irvine Regional, but the Cavaliers failed to follow that formula Friday after taking a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

Mississippi's game-tying rally started when UVa freshman second baseman Keith Werman fumbled a grounder by No. 8 hitter Evan Button, who reached on the error.

Brent Basham then attempted a sacrifice bunt but was awarded first base after being hit by UVa pitcher Matt Packer. It was one of three hit batsmen for UVa pitchers.

Packer was replaced by closer Kevin Arico, who gave up a one-out RBI single by Logan Power before recording back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.

Virginia opened the scoring with a run in the second inning and appeared to be cruising behind freshman ace Danny Hultzen. However, a case of miscommunication allowed the Rebels to tie the game in the fourth.

With one out in the bottom of the inning, third baseman Zach Miller hit a seemingly routine fly to short right field. Werman went back on the ball, only to back away as right fielder Dan Grovatt approached.

The ball fell between them and Miller scored on a single by shortstop Kevin Mort.

Virginia quickly responded with a pair of runs in the fifth but Mississippi avoided an even bigger inning as UVa third baseman Steven Proscia fouled out with the bases loaded.

A growing pitch count caused Virginia to pull Hultzen with two outs in the sixth, after he had given up a run-scoring double that enabled Ole Miss to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Hultzen escaped several early jams, struck out five batters and was named player of the game by the ESPN2 broadcasting crew when Virginia needed two outs to win the game.

Arico had not yielded a run, earned or unearned, in his previous nine outings. However, he had not pitched more than two innings in 39 previous college appearances.

Arico had pitched 2 23 innings when he went out to the mound for the bottom of the 12th, but he had nothing on Rebels reliever Jake Morgan, who received credit for the victory after pitching three innings.

Morgan, bleeding from the nose after being struck by a ball in pregame warmups, wasn't close on any of his first three pitches to Proscia with two outs and two on in the top of the 12th but induced a flyout for the third out.

It was the first appearance by Morgan since he gave up six earned runs without registering an out Sunday in a 10-9 loss to Western Kentucky in the Oxford Regional.
 

Rebels come from behind to snap Cavaliers' streak
The Associated Press
© June 6, 2009
By Chris Talbott
OXFORD, Miss.

Mississippi's Matt Smith remembers watching his game-winning home run sail over the leftfield wall.

Then, things get hazy.

Smith's solo homer in the bottom of the 12th inning and some knockout pitching from closer Jake Morgan, whose nose was broken by an errant throw in pregame warmups, gave Mississippi a 4-3 come-from-behind win over Virginia on Friday in a super regional game.

"The place just went nuts," Smith said.

"I don't remember much after that. I kind of remember coming home and I was on the ground with the team on top of me."

Ole Miss snapped Virginia's eight-game winning streak and handed the Cavaliers their first loss of the postseason. Smith's homer marked the first time this postseason that Virginia trailed.

The Cavaliers (46-13-1) used pitching and defense to build an early lead and appeared to be on the way to a narrow 3-2 win when a momentary lapse of concentration in the bottom of the ninth inning allowed the Rebels (43-18) back in it.

Second baseman Keith Werman committed a fielding error to open the inning, then reliever Matt Packer hit a batter. Two batters later, Logan Power's single tied it at 3.

Morgan (4-1) entered in the top of the 10th and shut down Virginia despite the gauze stuffed in his broken nose and two black eyes.

Morgan said the broken nose wasn't a problem, thanks to general numbness and some pain medication.

He gave up one hit and struck out one in three innings, with only one real challenge: Phil Gosselin's pop fly that floated to the warning track.

"He looked like Rocky out there, but he pitched like Rocky as well," Bianco said.

The Rebels needed a knockout blow against the Cavaliers, whose pitchers shut down the Rebels until the ninth. Starter Danny Hultzen, the Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year, Tyler Wilson and Packer had held the Rebels to seven hits. Worse, Ole Miss was 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position as Power came to bat.

Virginia needs two wins to make it to the College World Series.

Virginia coach Brian O'Connor doesn't expect his young team to be flat after such an emotional loss.

"These guys have always responded," O'Connor said. "They've never rolled over."
 

Crushing finish
By David Brandt
Correspondent
June 6, 2009
OXFORD, Miss.

— A marathon 4-hour, 17-minute baseball game came to an abrupt end Friday afternoon. And that's because Virginia closer Kevin Arico threw a pitch he'd like to have back.

The right-hander's first-pitch fastball in the bottom of the 12th inning got too much of the plate, and Mississippi first baseman Matt Smith smacked it over the left-center field fence to send the Cavaliers to a 4-3 loss in the first game of a best-of-three NCAA Super Regional at Oxford-University Stadium.

"It's pretty simple," Arico said. "I threw him a fastball and left it up over the heart of the plate. Then he did what any good hitter is going to do.

"He crushed it."

Virginia (46-13-1) and Ole Miss (44-18) play again at noon today in a game televised on ESPN2. The Cavaliers must win two games in a row to advance to the College World Series for the first time in program history.

"Nobody deserved to lose that one," Virginia coach Brian O'Connor said.

"We'll respond tomorrow and be ready to play tomorrow ... Our players have responded all year to difficult defeats and this should be no different." The Cavaliers will throw right-hander Robert Morey (3-0, 2.91 ERA) against Ole Miss left-hander Drew Pomeranz (8-4, 3.46) in the must-win game.

But Friday night, Virginia was left to mull over lost opportunities.

Leading 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Cavaliers' second baseman Keith Werman bobbled a ground ball that allowed Evan Button to reach base for Ole Miss.

Virginia reliever Matt Packer hit the next batter to put runners on first and second with no outs. O'Connor went to the bullpen, bringing in Arico, but after retiring the first Ole Miss batter, Logan Power ripped a single to left-center field that brought home Button and tied the game at 3.

Once the game went into extra innings, it was closer against closer.

Virginia used Arico (2-3) while Ole Miss had right-hander Jake Morgan (4-1) on the mound.

The Cavaliers had a golden opportunity to score in the top of the 12th inning when Jarrett Parker reached on a error to open the inning. But he was caught in a rundown after a bad sacrifice bunt by Corey Hunt for the first out.

Hunt advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw, but after an intentional walk, Morgan retired the next two batters — including a long fly ball to the warning track by Steven Proscia — to kill the rally.

Smith was 0-for-5 until the game-winning home run, which was his eighth homer of the season. It was the first time the Cavaliers have trailed during this year's NCAA tournament. The pitching staff gave up more runs Friday (four) then it did the entire Irvine Regional last weekend (two).

"I wanted to see if he'd challenge me inside," Smith said. "And the first pitch was a fastball in. I didn't try to do too much and barrel it up. I did and it went out of the park. The place went nuts."

U.Va. wasted a gritty outing from freshman ace Danny Hultzen, who gave up only two runs in 5 1/3 innings despite throwing in front of a raucous crowd of 9,213, which was the largest in Ole Miss postseason history.

"I knew he could handle it," O'Connor said. "He's had great poise all year."

Virginia outhit Ole Miss 11-10. Parker, Proscia and Phil Gosselin each had two hits. Ole Miss starter Phillip Irwin threw seven solid innings, giving up three runs.

"We just have to flush this one away," Hultzen said. "There's nothing we can do about it now. There's no pointing fingers. We just have to be ready to play (tomorrow)."
 

Smith's walk-off homer puts Rebels one win from Omaha
David Brandt • david.brandt@clarionledger.com • June 6, 2009

OXFORD — Moments after he had launched the ball more than 380 feet beyond the left-center wall Friday, Matt Smith rounded first base and took a moment to drink in the atmosphere as 9,213 fans erupted into pandemonium at Oxford-University Stadium.

"For a second or two," Smith said, "the ground actually shook."

That's because his walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the 12th inning gave the Rebels a 4-3 victory over Virginia in the first game of a best-of-three Super Regional series. With one more win, Ole Miss (44-18) goes to the College World Series for the first time since 1972.

The two teams will play again at 11 a.m. today. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Smith's dramatic homer was an offensive exclamation point at the end of an intense, pitching-centric game. The Rebels trailed nearly the entire afternoon before tying it up at 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth on Logan Power's RBI single. But once the Rebels couldn't score again in the ninth, Virginia (46-13-1) and Ole Miss settled into a battle of dueling closers.

For Virginia, it was Kevin Arico. For Ole Miss, it was Jake Morgan.

For almost three innings, neither blinked until Arico (2-3) threw a first-pitch fastball to start the Ole Miss 12th that missed its intended target.

And Smith made him pay. It was his eighth homer of the season.

"It's pretty simple," Arico said. "I threw him a fastball and left it up over the heart of the plate. Then he did what any good hitter is going to do.

"He crushed it."

Morgan (4-1) got the win, throwing three innings of nearly spotless relief. The right-hander broke his nose in a pregame accident when he misjudged a throw in warmups, and he pitched with gauze in his nose to try to stop the bleeding.

He looked awful. But his performance was great.

"He looked a little like Rocky out there," UM coach Mike Bianco said. "But he pitched like him, too."

Morgan said that after the accident, team doctors pumped him full of some painkillers and he was good to go.

"I felt great," Morgan said. "Better than I usually feel out there. Maybe it was the adrenaline."

Morgan capped a solid Ole Miss pitching performance. Starter Phillip Irwin gave up three runs over seven innings and David Goforth threw two scoreless innings before Morgan - bloody nose and all - took the ball.

Virginia was left to mull over lost opportunities. Leading 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Cavaliers second baseman Keith Werman bobbled a ground ball which allowed Evan Button to reach base and start the game-tying rally.

UVA wasted a gritty outing from freshman ace Danny Hultzen, who gave up only two runs in 5 1/3 innings despite throwing in front of a raucous crowd.

"We just have to flush this one away," Hultzen said. "There's nothing we can do about it now. There's no pointing fingers. We just have to be ready to play (today)."

Even with all of Friday's euphoria, the Rebels now must fight the ghosts of Super Regionals past when they take the field this morning. In both 2005 and 2006, the Rebels took Super Regional wins in Game 1 against Texas and Miami, respectively, before both teams rallied to win the next two games at Oxford-University Stadium.

UM will pitch left-hander Drew Pomeranz (8-4, 3.46) against UVA right-hander Robert Morey (3-0, 2.91).

Pomeranz is coming off a complete-game, 16-strikeout performance against Western Kentucky to win the regional championship on Monday.

Bianco said his team wasn't worried about past failures - only about the goal that's in front of them.

"Certainly, this was an exciting day and we're going to enjoy this," Bianco said. "But you gotta come out and play. You realize you gotta win two. We have to play better than they do (today)."
 

Cleveland: Morgan answers bell despite broken nose
By Rick Cleveland • rcleveland@clarionledger.com • June 6, 2009

Ole Miss closer Jake Morgan's mug looked like Rocky Balboa after a few rounds with Russian bruiser Ivan Drago. Dreadful.

Morgan's nose was broken. His face was scratched from baseball stitches. He really was a stitchhead. Gauze was hanging from his nose. Blood was streaming down his face. A couple times, he licked blood away before it would drip down into his mouth.

Really, you couldn't make this stuff up. And he was pitching.

In Game 1 of the Super Regional, Morgan was throwing against the hottest team in college baseball, the Virginia Cavaliers. Morgan went three pressure-packed, nose-packed innings - the 10th, the 11th and the 12th - to help the Rebels win a 4-3 victory and move to within one game of the College World Series.

Four nights earlier, Mike Bianco had used the word "legendary" to describe Drew Pomeranz's pitching performance against Western Kentucky. Morgan's effort Friday left Bianco, sports writers and sportscasters searching for new adjectives. A few possibles: gritty, blood-spattered and, most of all, heroic.

Morgan's pitching and Matt Smith's walk-off 12th inning home runs put two exclamation points at the end of a baseball game that was more like a 4-hour, 17-minute passion play. These were two really good college baseball teams, playing hard, if not always well, and battling back and forth, before 9,213 fans who never left the edge of their seats. Even when Smith launched his home run off vaunted Cavs closer Kevin Arico, Rebel fans stayed and cheered for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Ole Miss players were trying to meet down in left field, but the crowd was still roaring and the Rebels kept turning to tip their caps to the cheering throng.

Warmups turn grisly
Most of that same crowd missed the scene 25 minutes before the game when Morgan was warming up with his friend Nathan Baker out in left field. From about 70 feet away, Baker threw a fastball that Morgan just missed. It hit him squarely in the nose and knocked him to the ground for a good five minutes.

"I was shocked and then I was scared," Baker said afterward. "Actually, I was freaked out. He looked awful. Blood was gushing from his nose and coming out of his mouth. His face was all swollen. I thought it was my fault."

Not so, Morgan said.

"I don't remember much, but I remember I just missed it," Morgan said. "I guess I got distracted."

Ole Miss trainers couldn't stop the bleeding for the longest time.

That was Bianco's one concern, that they could slow the bleeding long enough for Morgan to pitch. Ole Miss didn't need a trainer; the Rebels needed a cut man.

Bianco said he never asked Morgan if he could go.

"I didn't ask him because I knew the answer," Bianco said. "I knew he would want the ball."

Morgan faced 13 batters and retired 11. He allowed one hit, one walk.

"He gutted it out," Bianco said. "... It must have been great TV."

It was better live.

Afterward, Morgan acted as if it was no big deal, as if you're supposed to pitch three innings of shutout ball against a great baseball team while snorting blood.

"To be honest, it didn't hurt that much," Morgan said. "I thought a broken nose would hurt worse than that. It just kind of went numb."

Bianco said he didn't know if Morgan would be available for Game 2. If so, one suggestion for pre-game warmups: Wear a mask.
 

Notebook: Bianco makes decision to start Pomeranz today
Rick Cleveland • David Brandt • June 6, 2009

OXFORD — Mike Bianco wasted no time deciding today's starter for Game 2 against the Virginia Cavaliers.

Said Drew Pomeranz, Monday night's Oxford Regional hero: "Coach told me right after the game that I've got the ball."

And, yes, Pomeranz said, he wants it.

"My arm feels fine; I feel good," Pomeranz said. "And it will nice to have 10,000 people out there behind me. There's a lot of adrenaline right now."

On two days rest, Pomeranz struck out 16 batters and allowed only two infield hits in a 4-1 championship victory over Western Kentucky. This time, Pomeranz will go on four days rest, still short for a college starter.

"I'm just going to use the same approach that worked in the regional," Pomeranz said. "I'll just try to go right at them."

Pomeranz, a lefty, will be going against a left-handed heavy Virginia lineup, not that he says it matters.

"They're a patient team," Pomeranz said. "From what I saw, they spit at curveballs in the dirt and wait for a good pitch to hit."

Bianco said it was not an easy decision but that he will go with Pomeranz "because I just think it's the right thing to do. At this point, I think Drew probably feels a little better than Buck (Brett Bukvich)."

Behind for a change
Matt Smith's 12th-inning home run that gave the Rebels the 4-3 victory over Virginia also marked the first time in the NCAA Tournament that the Cavs have been behind. Virginia led all the way in three straight victories in the Irvine Regional.

Losing the first game of a three-game series is nothing new to the Cavs. Virginia lost the first game of four Atlantic Coast Conference series. They came back to win two games to one over Duke, but lost two games to one against North Carolina and Virginia Tech and tied 1-1-1 with Georgia Tech.

Old reliable
Ole Miss pitcher Phillip Irwin had his fourth straight quality start on Friday afternoon, holding Virginia to three runs over seven innings.

Irwin has given up 10 runs combined over his last four outings. Ole Miss has a 3-1 record in those games, which has helped ease the loss of ace Scott Bittle to a shoulder injury.

Against Virginia, Irwin wasn't perfect, but he kept the Cavaliers at bay long enough to give the Rebels a chance to rally.

"I challenged them with my fastball and battled through the tough times," Irwin said. "They got to my curve in the fifth inning. But they're a great hitting ballclub and they hit a lot of mistakes. Fortunately the wind was blowing in and I got some fly ball outs."

Odds and ends
The Rebels' 44 wins are tied for second most in school history. ... Both teams played their longest game of the year on Friday. Virginia is 0-2 in extra-inning games, while Ole Miss is 2-1. ... Leadoff batter Jordan Henry had two stolen bases, raising his UM record for a single season to 37. The junior has reached base in 58 out of 61 games this season.