CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said Virginia’s ability to repeatedly get the inning’s leadoff man on base kept pressure on his pitching staff.

That was something the Cavaliers did in six of their eight leadoff at-bats in a 13-7 victory Saturday. No at-bat summed up things for the Rebels more than Keith Werman’s 12-pitch battle with Matt Crouse to lead off the fourth.

“Getting the leadoff man on is important in our offense, and I was going to do everything I could to see as many pitches as I could,” said Werman, a .438 hitter who was 1 for 5 in the game.

Werman was facing Ole Miss reliever Matt Crouse, a Virginia native, when he fell behind in the count. He worked it to 2-2 and proceeded to foul off seven pitches.

The home crowd got behind him, cheering his foul balls, and Werman finally singled to right field.

“He kept coming in over the plate, and I wasn’t going to give up,” Werman said.

Virginia sent 10 men to the plate in the fourth, getting four runs on four hits, two walks and a hit batter.

Goforth goes today

- Right-hander David Goforth (1-5, 8.41) will try to extend the Rebels’ season in today’s noon elimination game against St. John’s.

Goforth had appeared to settle into the starting role with back-to-back quality starts against Arkansas and Alabama but has lasted just 21⁄3 innings in each of his last two starts, both of them against Auburn.

Bianco said he his entire bullpen would be available, but he had no idea who he would pitch if the Rebels advance to face Virginia later in the day.

“That’s not even an idea right now,” he said.

Still, Bianco pointed to past success stories of teams at other schools who have come from loser’s brackets to win regionals in previous years.

“The key is not to look at it as having to win three games. If you think of it as 27 innings, 18 of them against those (Virginia) guys, it can be overwhelming. It’s possible. You have to play well, score runs and pitch well, and we have to get through St. John’s to have another chance.”

Could history repeat?

- The last time Ole Miss advanced from the loser’s bracket to win a road regional was in 1972, its last College World Series appearance. That series included the Virginia too.

The Rebels won the opener against Jacksonville, lost to Virginia, then defeated Florida State once and South Alabama twice. That was Jake Gibbs’ first season as Ole Miss coach, and the regional was held at Gastonia, N.C.

St. John’s 8, VCU 6

- No. 4 seed VCU was eliminated in Saturday’s first game – the first team out. The Rams gave up 23 runs in two regional games.

After using seven pitchers against Ole Miss, St. John’s used three against VCU.

The Red Storm (41-19) led 8-3 in the top of the ninth, but like the Rebels on Friday, needed to bring in a better arm to finally close things down. None of today’s three saw any action against Ole Miss.

St. John’s had 12 hits including home runs from freshman Jeremy Baltz, his 22nd, shortstop Joe Panik and second baseman Matt Wessinger, who was 3 for 5 with four RBIs and two runs scored.