By Jeff Roberson

Ole Miss Sports

Ole Miss and Memphis battled in non-conference baseball Wednesday night, and it was the Rebels who came out on top 5-3.

Memphis (7-7) scored two runs in the top of the first inning, but Ole Miss (9-5) got ahead in the third inning and maintained its lead throughout.

Riley Maddox made his fourth appearance and third start of the season. Three singles and a walk in the first gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead before the Rebels came up to bat. After a scoreless bottom of the first for Memphis starter Cade Davis, Maddox had a much better second with a strikeout, ground out, and strikeout to move to the Rebel second. A solo home run by team captain Reagan Burford cut the Memphis lead in half.

Maddox would end up going five innings, allowing just the two runs on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts. In the third, it was a groundout, strike out, and groundout for Maddox.

In the bottom of the third, the Rebels went back to work and took the lead. Ethan Groff led off the inning with a home run, and after one out, Jackson Ross reached on a base hit. Ethan Lege then homered to left field, and it was 4-2 Ole Miss through three.

The score stayed that way until the bottom of the sixth inning. Campbell Smithwick led off with a double, followed by a Groff walk. After there were two outs, Ross doubled to drive in Smithwick, and it was 5-2 Rebels.

Brayden Jones was the first Rebel out of the bullpen, pitching the sixth and the seventh. He did not allow a hit and struck out four of the six batters he faced.

The Tigers added a run in the eighth, but reliever Austin Simmons was able to pitch his way through the frame and get the Rebels to the bottom of the eighth.

After Ole Miss didn’t add to its lead, Conner Spencer came in to start the ninth and closed things out – with a leadoff single but nothing else in the ninth.

Maddox, now 1-1, got the win. Memphis starter Davis (0-3), the first of seven Tiger pitchers, got the loss. Spencer earned his second save of the season. The Rebels ended the game with nine hits to seven for the Tigers.

Ole Miss hosts Morehead State this weekend beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m.