PEARL, Miss.- Cody Overbeck is beginning to make a habit out of coming up with clutch hits when the game is on the line.
Overbeck's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth inning scored Evan Button from third base and gave Ole Miss (19-8) a 6-5 victory over Southern Mississippi (17-9) Tuesday at Trustmark Park.
The game-winning RBI was Overbeck's second in three games after the sophomore third baseman collected the winning single in the eleventh inning against Alabama last Saturday.
"I just happen to get in those situations," Overbeck said. "I was just trying to put the ball in play. He threw a lot of fastballs to Zack (Cozart) so I figured I would get the same thing."
Ole Miss loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning behind some timely hitting with the score tied 5-5.
Button began the inning with a single, but almost did not have the opportunity to advance into scoring position.
Jordan Henry laid down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded by Golden Eagle third baseman James Ewing, who then threw to second base instead of going for the sure-out at first. Button narrowly beat the throw into second and Henry reached on a fielder's choice.
"Sometimes you have to take chances and they went for it with the play at second," Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. "I think with a good throw they may have gotten him, it was close."
Justin Henry then followed his brother's successful bunt with a perfectly-placed bunt of his own to load the bases for the Rebels.
Two batters later, Overbeck delivered the walk-off sacrifice into rightfield to send Ole Miss home victorious.
Cody Satterwhite (2-0) picked-up the victory in relief for the Rebels. The sophomore pitched one inning of scoreless baseball and only allowed one hit.
The 6,217 in attendance at Trustmark, home of the Mississippi Braves, were treated to a see-saw battle between the two interstate rivals.
The middle innings provided much of the offensive fireworks as the Rebels and Golden Eagles traded the lead three times in three innings.
Southern Miss jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after Ole Miss starting pitcher Nathan Baker surrendered a two-run homerun to Trey Sutton in the third inning.
Ole Miss responded in the bottom of the fourth with a power surge of its' own.
Andrew Clark and Logan Power had back-to-back home runs to tie the game, and after JoJo Tann was hit by a pitch, Alex Kliman put the Rebels in front with his first homerun of the season.
The lead was short-lived however; Southern Miss scored two runs on two wild pitches from Ole Miss' Phillip Irwin in the fifth to regain the lead.
Ole Miss then tied the game in the eighth inning when Overbeck scored on a sacrifice fly from pinch-hitter C.J. Ketchum.
"Every time we play Southern it seems to go down to the wire," Bianco said. "In my seven years here, it seems like at least half of the games are won in the last inning. This was a typical game in our series."
Patrick Ezell (2-1) took the loss for Southern Miss. Ezell pitched the final .2 innings and allowed two hits and the sacrifice fly to Overbeck.
Ole Miss will travel to Auburn this weekend to take on the Tigers in a three-game SEC series beginning at 6 p.m. Friday.
