After just two games, WKU Baseball’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009 came to an end Friday with an 8-6 loss to the No. 15 Ole Miss Rebels. 

WKU suffered a last place finish in the Oxford Regional as the No. 3 seed, ending tournament play with an 0-2 record. The Hilltoppers were outscored 17-8 in their two tournament games.

The Rebels’ five unanswered runs in the middle innings proved to be the deciding factor in the first elimination game of the Oxford regional, as the Hilltoppers fell two runs too short in their three-run, late-inning rally. 

Senior Kyle Hayes recorded three of the 14 Hilltopper hits, driving in three runs, including a solo home run in the seventh inning. 

WKU’s pitching staff, which held the fourth-best ERA in Division I baseball at the start of the day, allowed eight runs on 15 hits. The Hilltoppers allowed nine runs on 11 hits in their first game of the regional against Georgia Tech. Junior Jack Bennett earned the start against the Rebels, but only got through one inning of work, allowing three runs on six hits. 

Scoring Recap

Both offenses came out hot in the first inning. In the top, senior outfielder Mitchell Sanford’s leadoff home run to right field put the Rebels on the board. Junior left fielder Joe Siervo dropped a pop fly to shallow left field, allowing junior infielder Luke Hill to cross home plate for a 2-0 Ole Miss lead. 

WKU answered in the bottom half of the inning. Redshirt junior third baseman Carlos Vasquez opened the bottom of the first with a double to center field. Two errors by the Rebels proved costly, as the second allowed Vasquez to score. At the next at-bat, senior first baseman Kyle Hayes’ RBI single up the right scored senior right fielder Ethan Lizama to tie the game at 2-2.

The Rebels regained the lead in the top of the second when sophomore catcher Austin Fawley sent one over the center field fence. After senior infielder Luke Cheng singled to left field in the next at-bat, junior right-hander Dawson Hall relieved Bennett on the mound. Hall struck out the first batter he faced, and a double play immediately after sent the Hilltoppers to the batter’s box. 

In the bottom frame, Vasquez’s RBI double down the left field line scored senior second baseman Austin Haller to tie the game at 3-3.

The Rebels’ offense outperformed the Hilltoppers’ defense in the fourth. Another Fawley center field homer and an RBI single from Hill gave Ole Miss a 5-3 lead. 

Senior right-hander Lucas Hartman replaced Hall at pitcher in the top of the fifth. He gave up a center field homer to junior infielder Judd Utermark in the first at-bat of the inning, giving Ole Miss a 6-3 cushion. 

Ole Miss built on its lead in the top of the sixth. A center field blast from Sanford put the Rebels up 7-3. 

Utermark sent his second homer over the right field wall in the top of the seventh, putting Ole Miss up five, 8-3, with nine Hilltopper outs remaining. 

The Hilltoppers started to rally in the bottom of the seventh with the help of Hayes, whose right field homer cut the Rebel lead to four. Hayes struck again in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI single, cutting Ole Miss’ lead to 8-5 and putting the tying run at the plate. 

WKU inched closer when Lizama scored on a two-out error, but it was not enough as the Hilltoppers’ season came to a close on a flyout from freshman infielder Reid Howard. Howard’s out left the tying runs on the basepath.