I know we have a busy weekend of hoops action at Trask Coliseum, but let's not forget an incredibly important series for our Diamond Hawks down in Oxford, MS in Week 2 of the baseball season!
# 17 Ole Miss Rebels
2016 Record: 43-19
2016 SEC Record: 18-12 (4th, West Division)
2016 RPI: 10
2016 Finish: 0-2 at Oxford, MS Regional
2017 Record: 4-0 (3 W vs. ECU, W vs. Arkansas State)
Seems to me the Rebels are pissed off. And rightly so. After going 0-2 at their own Regional in 2016, I'd be pissed off too. And Ole Miss is certainly playing that way to start the 2017 campaign. After sweeping a ranked ECU team and then blowing out Arkansas State by a 16-4 score in the midweek, they might just be getting started. Now, in the midst of an 8-game homestand, Ole Miss welcomes our Seahawks for a 3-game series starting at Friday at 5 PM EST.
Here's some scary notes about Ole Miss. First off, Kyle Peterson of the SEC Network stated that Ole Miss has the best freshman class in the SEC. Secondly, Ole Miss has already claimed an SEC Player of the Week honoree in sophomore CF
Ryan Olenek:
* Ole Miss' Ryan Olenek went 6-for-13 (.462 average), recording a team high in hits and tied with a team-best two doubles to help lead Ole Miss to a sweep over No. 6 East Carolina. He started all three games in center field and recorded at least one hit in each contest.
* Olenek went 3-for-4 with a double to lead the team in a 5-4 season-opening victory.
* Batting leadoff for the first time in his career, Olenek put together a multi-hit game and plated one run in Saturday's 3-2 win. He smacked the game-winning two-run double that capped off a five-run sixth inning in the season finale.
Noting all this, Olenek hasn't even had the best start, statistically on his own team. Freshman catcher
Thomas Dillard is hitting 7-12 (.583) thru 4 games. Meanwhile, junior 1B/LF
Will Goslan is batting .533 with a HR, 5 RBI and 4 doubles. He's slugging 1.000 thru 15 at-bats. As a team, Ole Miss is hitting .323, slugging .474 with a .414 On Base Percentage. This is a deep hitting team, much like you'd expect out of a quality SEC program.
On the mound, Ole Miss has 5 pitchers who have made appearances out of the bullpen without surrendering a single run. Their starters, meanwhile, have had mixed results. Freshman righty
Will Ethridge struck out 10 and walked 2 against Arkansas State on Tuesday in 5 innings of work, but allowed 4 runs (2 earned). Junior lefty
David Parkinson lasted 7 innings against ECU and allowed 3 runs on 6 hits. Sophomore righty
James McArthur only made it 4.1 innings and had a 4.15 ERA, while another sophomore righty,
Brady Feigl was shelled for 5 runs (4 earned) on 9 hits in 5.0 innings. Still, when you have a stellar bullpen, you can afford to have a mixed bag of starting pitching results. And remember that ECU was, of course, a quality opponent.
Ole Miss is a team more than capable of getting to a Super Regional in 2017 and maybe even Omaha, especially if early results are any sign. Our Seahawks, who struggled a bit on the mound last weekend, will need to bring the best we have against this awesome Ole Miss lineup, while getting some runs off their pitching early. Winning 1/3 would be a solid accomplishment. Anything more would be stellar.
One final note: Ole Miss set a record with over 12,000 in attendance on opening day. This will be a great environment for baseball.