Ole Miss players celebrate a run scored during Tuesday's comeback win against North Alabama 4-2. | Ole Miss Athletics
Ole Miss players celebrate a run scored during Tuesday's comeback win against North Alabama 4-2. | Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss Rallies Late, Beats North Alabama 4-2 in Extra Innings

BY Taylor Hodges

If Ole Miss needed a reminder that a bad weekend doesn’t have to bleed into the rest of the season, Tuesday night in Florence wasn’t a bad place to find it.

The Rebels didn’t play clean, didn’t hit early, and didn’t exactly cruise past North Alabama. But they did something they couldn’t manage against Alabama: they pushed back.

And right now, that matters.

For four innings, Ole Miss looked stuck in the same gear it left SEC play in. Two errors, no hits, and a 2-0 hole against a midweek opponent isn’t the kind of script that inspires confidence.

But the Rebels didn’t fold. Kennedy Bunker cracked the first dent in the wall with a solo shot in the fifth, and from there the game slowly shifted from “uh-oh” to “maybe.”

Then came the seventh inning, and Madi George turned “maybe” into something real. Down to their last three outs, she flicked an opposite‑field homer over the left‑field fence.

It was the kind of swing that doesn’t just tie a game, but snaps a team awake. It bought Ole Miss three more outs, and that was enough.

Extra innings brought a little more chaos, a little more traffic, and a lot more pressure. Rachel Connors set the tone with a pinch‑hit double. Ryan Starr stole third. Taylor Malvin and Mackenzie Pickens worked walks.

And with the inning teetering, George stepped in again and ripped a two‑run double down the right‑field line. Same hitter, same calm, same lift.

That’s resiliency. Not the loud kind. The steady kind.

Emilee Boyer handled the bottom of the eighth with no drama, and Ole Miss walked off with a 4-2 win that won’t show up on any résumé but might matter anyway. After getting swept to open SEC play, the Rebels needed something that looked like belief. They needed to see a game tilt their way because they made it tilt.

They got that.

Now comes the hard part: carrying it into Austin. Texas is ranked No. 2 for a reason, and the margin for error shrinks even more on the road. But at least Ole Miss heads into the weekend with a reminder that it can take a punch and still find a way to land one back.

That’s a better place to be than where they were Sunday. And maybe it keeps them from getting swept again.

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