Ole Miss baseball takes series opener from Purdue behind TJ McCants' performance
OXFORD — It would be hard to look worse at the plate than Ole Miss right fielder TJ McCants did in his first three at-bats of the game – all of them strikeouts.
But McCants' fortunes turned when he drove a sixth-inning fastball from Purdue hurler CJ Backer 395 feet over the right field wall. He then made a diving catch in the next inning that saved a run, before slugging his second home run of the game that put the finishing touches on a 15-7 Rebels win over the Boilermakers Friday night at Swayze Field.
Ole Miss (12-2) got out to an 8-0 lead that Purdue (8-5) trimmed to three runs on two different occasions before the Rebels fended them off for good with a five-run seventh.
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Alderman's homer punctuates early inning Ole Miss dominance
Ole Miss owned an 8-0 lead by the time Purdue secured its sixth out.
The Rebels used a station-to-station approach in the first inning. After Purdue starter Stephen Kahl hit Jacob Gonzalez and walked Ethan Groff, the Rebels set the merry-go-round in motion.
Kemp Alderman singled home a run to open the scoring. Then Anthony Calarco, Peyton Chatagnier and Will Furniss roped run-scoring singles of their own to send Ole Miss into the second inning with a four-run advantage.
The Rebels put up another four-spot in the second inning, but this one was much louder.
Alderman slugged the most impressive homer by an Ole Miss player so far this season in the bottom of the second. The ball left his bat at 118 miles per hour on a three-run shot that gave the Rebels a 7-0 advantage. Furniss singled home another run in the inning to put Ole Miss up 8-0.
Strong start turns shaky for Dougherty
Ole Miss starter Jack Dougherty retired the first seven batters he faced and didn't surrender his first hit until the fourth inning.
With a lively fastball and a breaking ball he was spotting for strikes, it seemed like Dougherty would cruise. But he ran into trouble in the top of the fourth, when Purdue's Jake Jarvis took him deep for a three-run homer. After a strong fifth, he was charged with three more runs in the sixth. Mike Bianco turned the game over to the bullpen with two outs in that frame.
Up next
Ole Miss continues its three-game series with Purdue on Saturday (noon, SEC Network+).
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: How TJ McCants led Ole Miss baseball to series-opening win over Purdue
