Ole Miss baseball sets offensive weekend records in sweep of Princeton

Published 3:42 pm Sunday, March 8, 2020

In the history of Ole Miss baseball, they haven’t scored more runs in a weekend series than they did in the past three days against Princeton.

The Rebels blew out Princeton 14-2 on Sunday in a run-rule-shortened 6.5 inning game, winning their 14th consecutive game and capping a ridiculous three-day weekend of offense in Oxford.

“I think, honestly, we’re so deadly at the plate,” said catcher Hayden Dunhurst. “Our two-hole guy hit two home runs today. We just have a lot of electric players that can do almost everything. That’s what makes us special, one through nine. Anyone can go deep, anybody can steel a base. We’re really enjoying it.”

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Ole Miss’ offense simply could not be any hotter. Over the course of the past three days, Ole Miss scored 47 runs and recorded 43 hits. The 47 runs scored tie the most in team history for a three-game series, matching a mark first set in 2005 in a weekend series against Purdue. The team hit 10 home runs on the weekend, including four on Sunday, to extend their nation-leading home runs mark to 31 over 15 games.

Playing Sunday under a run-rule of 10 runs after seven innings, Ole Miss scored in each of the six innings they brought batters to the plate. Unlike the past two days, when the team strung together massive innings to blow open the gates, the Rebels simply tagged on runs in literally every inning on Sunday.

Peyton Chatagier got things going offensively in just the second at-bat of the game, taking the Princeton starter deep to left field. Chatagnier stayed hot on the afternoon, ending the day 3 for 4 with two homers, 3 RBIs and a walk. The Rebel freshman second baseman hit only four home runs as a senior in high school – he’s now hit four over 15 games as a college freshman.

“The first one, I thought he was actually camped under it, but we had the wind today. It feels great, I don’t think we could play much better,” Chatagnier said. “I’m surprising myself, 100-percent. I came in thinking I’d be a guy that played good defense and, hitting, we’ll see how it goes. So I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s fun.”

In total, tagging 14 runs in six innings of offense on Sunday, seven Rebels recorded a hit, including five different players with a multi-hit game and eight separate players with an RBI.

Overshadowed in how good the team was offensively for the weekend is the pitching staff. Ole Miss allowed a total of six runs over three games, only two of which came from starters. Doug Nikhazy and Gunnar Hoglund both reached double-digit strikeout numbers in shutout starts, where Derek Diamond allowed two runs and five hits through 5.o innings of work. The Rebel freshman will enter conference play 4-0 with a 3.51 ERA.

“He was awesome. Especially out of the gates, everything was so sharp. The first few innings, I didn’t even hardly to move my glove for anything,” said Dunhurst said. “Everything was on point, the slider, the fastball. He’s just a really great competitor.”

With the win, Ole Miss extends their Bianco-record win streak to 14. Next up, Ole Miss takes its streak streak to Louisiana. The Rebels’ midweek slate includes two games this week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, at UL Monroe.