The Recap: Ole Miss Baseball Falls Short of Comeback, Knocked Out of NCAA Tournament

The Ole Miss Rebels saw their 2025 season come to a close on Monday night after falling short of what would have been a historic comeback following a 12-11 loss to the Murray State Racers.

The Rebels held the Racers in check in the first inning after sitting them down in 1-2-3 fashion, the first time in 12 innings the Racers did not record a base runner.

However, the second inning was where Murray State found the bats as they scraped across two runs with a few hard hit balls, but both runs came off balls that stayed in the infield.

The first run came on a groundout deep in the hole from Dan Tauken as Dom Decker crossed the plate, and was quickly followed by Conner Cunningham who reached on an infield single as Luke Mistone scampered home as well.

Murray State continued to add on in the third inning; starting with Decker ripping a base hit to allow Carsen Garner to score from second. Decker advanced to second on the throw home.

This allowed Mistone to trade places with him roping an RBI double before Will Veirling capped off the inning hitting an RBI single to make it 5-0 Racers.

However, in the bottom of the third, the Rebels put themselves on the board behind an Austin Fawley solo home run over 400 feet into left field to make it a 5-1 ball game.

Just one inning later, the Rebels cut into the deficit a little more as Judd Utermark launched a two-run shot 415 feet into the left field stands, making it 5-3 after Utermark's NCAA leading sixth home run of the regional round.

But the Racers proceeded to answer with a hit parade to reinstate a deficit on Ole Miss.

The Racers' scoring was started off by an error on a tough bounce by Rebels first baseman Will Furniss which plated a run.

Followed by another RBI single from the Racers, this time by Johnathon Hogart, before Dustin Mercer capped off the frame with an RBI triple giving Murray State a 9-3 lead.

The Racers then followed that frame by adding yet another insurance run as Mistone tacked on another RBI single for the Racers to make it 10-3 after the top of the fifth.

Murray State continued to add on in the seventh as Garner recorded another RBI, as he roped a double before being driven in by Mistone who logged another RBI single to give the Racers a 12-3 advantage.

However, despite the large deficit, Ole Miss was not sitting down easily as in the seventh inning they batted around the lineup sending 10 batters to the plate driving in 5 runs of their own.

The scoring for the inning was started as Ole Miss drew four consecutive walks, two of which walked in runs for the Rebels.

With the bases still loaded, Luke Hill sent a screaming line drive that fell right in front of the Racers right fielder to drive in a run.

Just one batter later, Furniss punched a single through the 4-5 hole to drive in a run himself.

The Rebels then stood with runners on the corners and Utermark stepping up to the dish, and on the first seemed to wear a curverball off the elbow to send the tying run up to the plate.

But after review, it was deemed that Utermark leaned into the pitch which sent him back to the box, where the at-bat ended in a strikeout, It became the first half of back-to-back strikeouts to end the Rebels' seventh inning rally, but now only down 12-8.

The Rebels starter-turned-reliever, Mason Nichols, followed that inning by striking out the first two batters of the inning, and then battled 7 pitches and produced a foul pop out to conclude the inning.

With that momentum untouched, the Ole Miss bats stayed hot as they were started by Campbell Smithwick beating out an infield single, and two batters later, Fawley drew a walk.

With one man out and two runners on, Brayden Randle sent his first home run of the season into the student section igniting Swazye Field as he made it a one-run ball game in the bottom of the eighth.

Ole Miss then turned to ace Hunter Elliott in the ninth, and he kept the game in hand as he retired the Racers in order to send the Rebels back to the plate just one swing away.

However, Kelham answered that by sitting down the Rebels in order including a 12-pitch strikeout to put the Rebels down to their last batter, as Hayden Federico followed by getting a hold of a strike but sent it right Hogart in center as the Rebels season ended in Oxford.