Rebs, USM in NCAA Tourney

Published 4:03 am Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Ole Miss hosts Monmouth, N.J., Western Kentucky and Missouri in a NCAA college baseball regional beginning Friday.

Ole Miss will play Monmouth and Western Kentucky will play Missouri.

“We don’t know much about these teams right now,” said Rebels coach Mike Bianco. “But we’re going to learn a lot more over the next 24 hours.”

Sign up for our daily email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

The regional is double-elimination, with the 16 winners advancing to the super regionals, beginning June 5. The eight super regional winners advance to the College World Series, which begins June 13 in Omaha, Neb.

Meanwhile, Southern Miss will play Elon in the Atlanta regional. Georgia Tech will play Georgia State in the other game.

“I really think that we played the best we have all year over the last week to get an at large bid,” Eagles head coach Corky Palmer said. “This team has come on a lot lately and I could not be prouder of this team right now.”

On Sunday, Jimmy Camerota’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth propelled Rice to an 8-6 win over Southern Mississippi to capture the Conference USA tournament title Sunday.

The win gave Rice (39-15) an automatic berth in the NCAA regionals.

The Owls took a 2-0 lead in the first on Anthony Rendon’s two-out, two-run homer off Todd McInnis. Rice scored two more runs in the fifth inning on a bases-loaded error by third baseman Taylor Walker.

Southern Mississippi’s Tyler Koelling hit a three-run double in the sixth, followed by B.A. Vollmuth’s RBI. A two-run double followed by Rice’s Diego Seastrunk in the bottom of the sixth put the Owls ahead 6-4. The Golden Eagles (35-23) tied the game at 6 on Kameron Brunty’s two-run homer. In the bottom of the eighth, Rice added an insurance run when Camerota scored on an outfield error.

The winning pitcher was Jordan Rogers (8-3). Colin Cargill (3-3) took the loss.