In a pitcher's duel Friday night in Oxford, Miss., Ole Miss starter David Parkinson took a no-hitter into the eighth inning to lead the 20th-ranked Rebels past Furman 2-0 in the opening game of a weekend series.
Furman ace Will Gaddis (1-2) had his best performance of the season, but deserved a better fate. The only runs of the night were scored after happenings beyond Gaddis' control.
"That was the best Will's looked (this season) and it isn't even close. His breaking stuff was on and his fastball was good," Furman coach Brett Harker said. "We were uncharacteristically sloppy in the field. There should've been four errors."
In the third inning, Gaddis appeared set for a seven-pitch inning when Will Golson hit a two-out groundball to short. However, Golson reached on an error that was later inexplicably changed to a single. Ryan Olenek lined the next pitch for a base hit to right that Furman's David Webel tried to field barehanded but overran. Webel's error allowed Golson to come home with the first run.
The Rebels (9-5) had a man on first and two out in the fifth when Olenek hit a hard grounder that was headed right for Furman second baseman Sims Griffith but hit the umpire instead. By rule, that's a dead ball single. Tate Blackman followed with an RBI-single to make it 2-0. Gaddis threw 13 more pitches after the groundball off the umpire, but got out of a bases-loaded jam with no further damage.
"Baseball can be cruel. That being said, I guess none of that matters because we couldn't scratch one (run) anyway," Harker said. "Give their guy credit. He's really good. He had four pitches working and pounded the (strike) zone.
"I thought we did a poor job of expanding the zone with him. We swung at pitches that we don't normally swing at."
While Gaddis was trying to keep the Paladins (8-5) close, Parkinson was mowing them down. Over the first seven innings, the lone Furman batter reached when Carter Grote was hit by a pitch leading off the fourth. Grote was thrown out trying to steal second.
The Paladins got their first hit when Brandon Elmy singled to center on the first pitch of the eighth inning. The inning ended two batters later when Jake Crawford bounced into a controversial 5-4-3 double play. After umpires reviewed a possible foul ball catch that clearly hit the ground earlier in the inning, there was no review of the double play in which it appeared Crawford may have beaten the throw to first.
Furman tried to rally off Ole Miss closer Will Stokes in the ninth. Pinch-hitters Trent Alley and Jason Costa singled and walked, respectively, leading off. After David Webel struck out trying to sacrifice bunt, Grote followed with a rocket liner right to Ole Miss third baseman Colby Bortles who fired to second for a game-ending double play.
"Not getting that bunt down in the ninth was really frustrating because we know that's what he's really good at," Harker said. "With all those things we didn't do right, we lose 2-0 at Ole Miss. That tells you the type of team we're capable of being. We just need to clean those things up."
Parkinson (3-1) allowed one hit and no walks in eight scoreless innings for Ole Miss. The former Florence-Darlington Tech standout had a career-high nine strikeouts. Stokes collected his fourth save.
Gaddis gave up two runs, one earned, on six hits in seven innings for Furman. He had two walks and six strikeouts.
Game two of the series is scheduled for Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
*Video courtesy of Dan Scott.
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