No. 17 Ole Miss and No. 22 Arkansas spent all weekend living on the long ball, so it was only fitting that the Razorbacks finished the series with one more swing.
Ole Miss nursed a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth Sunday, three outs from stealing a road series, and then watched it disappear in two at‑bats.
Nolan Souza fought off pitch after pitch to open the inning with a single, and Christian Turner followed with a walk‑off shot to right center that ended the game and the weekend in one clean punch.
Arkansas took it 5-4 and claimed the series, while Ole Miss walked off the field knowing it had been that close to flipping the script.
“The biggest part was we just couldn’t give up another run,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “When you get to Sunday and you use some bullpen pieces up, throwing (Hudson) Calhoun and Hooks yesterday, which we had to win and we had to use them, you’re not sure what they’re going to have left in the tank at the end. Do you try to wait as long as you can? There was a debate. Do we go to Robertson or do we try to squeeze another one out of (starter Taylor) Rabe? On a somewhat warm day, (Rabe) was really good but in the last inning wasn’t as good. …We just thought his stuff was starting to deteriorate and we didn’t want to bring Robertson in in a messy inning and give him a chance to start out clean. Obviously that didn’t work and once we got to that point, you can’t worry about the ninth. You gotta worry about the game.”
It stings because the Rebels had done enough to win.
Owen Paino gave them an early spark with a three‑run homer in the second, a ball he lifted high into the wind and let the breeze finish for him.
Judd Utermark tied the program’s career home run record with his solo shot in the eighth, a no‑doubt swing to straightaway center that briefly put Ole Miss back in front.
Taylor Rabe turned in one of his better outings, working five innings with seven strikeouts and keeping Arkansas quiet long enough for the lineup to build a lead.
But Arkansas kept answering. A solo homer in the fifth cut the margin to one. A 469‑foot blast from Kuhio Aloy in the sixth tied it again.
By the time the ninth rolled around, the Razorbacks had already shown they weren’t going away, and Turner made sure the final swing belonged to them.
Ole Miss heads back to Oxford at 32-17 and 12-12 in the SEC, with Texas A&M coming in next weekend for the final home series of the regular season.
