Utermark's Two Homers, Five RBIs Propel Ole Miss to 7-1 in Oxford

Judd Utermark sent two balls out of the park and paced Ole Miss with five RBIs in a 7-1 win over Memphis at Swayze Field in Oxford Tuesday night. The senior's second homer came in the seventh inning and closed out the scoring in the midweek contest, lifting the Rebels to an 11-2 record.

Memphis struck first with a run in the top of the first, but Utermark answered immediately with a blast in the bottom half of the inning to make it 2-1. Ole Miss tacked on two more runs in the second after a bases-loaded walk and a hit-by-pitch, and Topher Jones recorded his first home run as a Rebel in the third to stretch the lead to 5-1. Utermark connected again in the seventh to make it 7-1, marking the sixth multi-homer game of his career.

On the mound, Owen Kelly made his third start of the season and worked 4.0 innings, allowing one run while striking out five Tiger hitters and stretching his punchout total to nine on the season. Grayson Gibson was first out of the pen and delivered 4.0 innings of shutout baseball; he allowed no runs on no hits and struck out five, an outing that earned him his first career win. Landon Waters relieved Gibson in the ninth to seal the victory for the Rebels. Memphis right-hander Isaac Lucas was charged with the loss.

The victory offered a timely rebound for Ole Miss after a disappointing 1-2 weekend at the Bruce Bolt College Classic, a need-for-momentum the Rebels answered at home in Oxford. The Tigers fell to 3-9 with the loss, while Ole Miss improved to 11-2 heading into the next slate of games.

Ole Miss returns to action Wednesday night against North Alabama with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. CT at Swayze Field, also referred to as Oxford–University Stadium in some game notes. The Rebels will use Wednesday's midweek matchup to carry momentum into a weekend series with Evansville in Oxford.