Kentucky guns down Mississippi at the plate

**Stardust** · 04-08-2012, 04:39 AM

Ole Miss outhit the Wildcats 13-7, had three runners thrown out at the plate and lost despite four UK errors. The Cats (29-2, 8-2 SEC), ranked No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball and leading the SEC East, extended their school-record home-field winning streak to 21 games.

âI thought we showed a lot of resiliency,â UK Coach Gary Henderson said. âWe gave up a lot of base hits early. (Starting pitcher) Taylor Rogers didnât cave. He stayed tough. He kept his poise and battled really well with guys on base.

âI thought our team defense was good once again. We were a little tight early and made some errors that we characteristically donât make. Then, obviously, thereâs some timely hitting, but the story of the game is Alex Phillips, to me. Being able to go in and get that type of performance out of him to calm us down and get the momentum back in our dugout was huge.â

Phillips (5-1) came on to open the sixth inning, trailing 2-1. He threw 31⁄3 innings of three-hit shutout ball. Trevor Gott came on to get the last two outs and earn his seventh save.

âIt was a lot of fun. I knew I had a specific job to do, and that was to hold them,â Phillips said. âDidnât have my stuff early on, so I decided to pound the ball in the zone with the pitches I did have, and then it picked up later on when I finally mastered those pitches.â

UK tied the game in the sixth inning. Luke Maile led off with a double, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on Zac Zellersâ sacrifice fly to short right.

Maile also scored the winning run, after knocking a one-out double in the eighth.

Cameron Flynn brought him home with a single up the middle against Dylan Chavez.

âI saw him pitch against A.J. (Reed) and he was throwing a lot of sliders and working away,â Flynn said. âSo I knew he was going to come back with it and I put a good swing on it.â

Flynn was retired on an odd play. With Flynn running, Zellers struck out. Flynn was ruled out because Zellers interfered with the catcher.

In the fourth inning, Flynn tied to score from third on Michael Williamsâ fly to right. On appeal, though, he was ruled out for having left early.

Rogers battled for five innings, giving up only two runs on 10 hits.

Flynn, in right field, saved two runs by running down Will Allenâs liner.

An inning later, center fielder Austin Cousino gunned down Andrew Mistone at the plate.

UK took a 1-0 lead in the second.

J.T. Riddle walked, advanced to third on Williamsâ double and scored when Matt Reidaâs grounder scooted under the glove of shortstop Blake Newalu for an error.

The 10th-ranked Rebels (20-9, 5-5) tied in the third, when Cousino dropped Matt Snyderâs fly. Auston Bousfield scored from third.

In the fourth, Mistoneâs RBI double gave Ole Miss a 2-1 lead.

However, when Tanner Mathis beat out a grounder to short, Mistone tried to score from second and was thrown out at the plate by first baseman Williams.

Mathis was the third Rebel nailed at the plate, in the seventh. Trying to score on Snyderâs fly ball, Mathis appeared to beat Cousinoâs throw, but the catcher â Maile â had the plate blocked.

âI just got my body behind it a little bit and I donât have too strong an arm, so I just count on âaccuracy always will beat a strong throw,ââ Cousino said. ââ¦ Iâve been working on the long hops. Luckily, I think we got a call that might have been wrong there. But, hey, Iâll take it any day.

âWe really didnât have our âAâ game today and Ole Miss came out and they were swinging it. We were kind of on our heels for a little bit. We took some punches and we got right back at it. If youâre going to be a good SEC team, those are games youâve got to win, and we just proved that tonight.â

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/04/07/21428...rylink=cpy