The wore green hats for St. Patrick's Day, but the Memphisbaseball team still got pinched.
The Tigers were unable to do much of anything at the plate, inthe field or on the pitcher's mound as they were drummed 19-0 byNo.11 Ole Miss in front of 3,822 at AutoZone Park Wednesdaynight.
"They beat us. There's no way else to put it," said Memphiscoach Dave Anderson.
Memphis (10-4) only manufactured three hits in the game.
Nick Bradshaw, who played his first three years at Ole Miss, gothe start for the Tigers, but it was short-lived.
Bradshaw wen three innings, giving up five hits and five earnedruns.
"We only made two errors tonight on the scoreboard, but we madea ton of mistakes."
The shut out gives the Rebels (15-1) their fourth straight andextends a school-record for consecutive scoreless innings to39.
Eric Fowler took the mound for the Rebels, who are off to theirbest start in school history. Fowler gave up no runs and two hitsin five innings of work.
The win is the largest margin of victory for the Rebels in overa year.
Ole Miss collected 18 hits in the game.
"We swung the bat really well and all the way around it was aterrific game by us," said Rebel coach Mike Bianco. "We did it alltonight."
Ole Miss shortstop Matt Tolbert went 3-for-5 at the plate andsaid everyone who stepped up to the plate felt comfortable.
"We hit really well, that's about all you can say. Everybody whogot an at-bat swung," he said. "If they didn't get a hit they werestill swinging really well."
Cooper Osteen led the Rebels with his 4-for-6, three-RBIperformance.
Memphis entered the game second in Conference USA with a teamERA of 2.37.
Tolbert said he was a little uneasy at first about going againsthis former teammate Bradshaw.
"I was kind of shaky," he said. "I just wanted a hit to bad Ihad to tell myself just to calm down and pretend like he wassomeone else so I wouldn't chase bad pitches."
Despite the loss, Memphis is off to its best start in severalyears and Anderson said one bad game wouldn't derail his team'sconfidence.
"We've done a lot of positive things, we're not going to throwit away on one game," Anderson said. "How you react after a gamelike this is important and believe me, we will be ready toplay."
