(Courtesy: Josh McCoy | Ole Miss Athletics)
Ryan Olenek celebrates with teammates after his game-tying 3 run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against Auburn on Sunday. Ole Miss would go onto win the game with a walk off single by Henri Lartigue.
This time a year ago, Ole Miss was more than 1800 miles away in Los Angeles preparing its game against Maryland in a regional hosted by UCLA. This year, the Rebels get luxury of preparing at home.
“Whenever you can play in front of your home fans and sleep in your own bet at night, and wake up and do the same thing you do every morning, it’s definitely nice,” Tate Blackman said. “It keeps us calm. We know what to expect from our fans. They’re always great for us, and to play in front of them in a regional is a bonus for us.”
This will be Blackman’s first regional in Oxford, and he’s eager to play in the environment that comes with having postseason games at Swayze Field.
“I keep on asking Colby (Bortles), Errol (Robinson) and J.B. (Woodman) ‘is Friday going to be crazy?’ and they tell me ‘just wait, you’ll see how alive it is,’” Blackman said.
In fact, he even took to YouTube to get a preview of what the atmosphere will be like at Swayze this weekend. There are a couple of different Rebels that will be playing postseason ball for the first time at home, but there is also some experience on this team, and there are guys that have been there before. One of them being Errol Robinson.
“I’m kind of the old man now,” Robinson joked. “It feels like I was a freshman, nervous and just started up at the beginning of this year, but now it’s my third year. I’ve gone through it and been on both sides. The winning side and losing side, the hosting and non-hosting side. It’s good to be home, and I’m excited to be home and am just ready to get the ball rolling.”
Ole Miss will take the field in the second game of the day on Friday against the PAC 12 champion Utah Utes who are throwing their ace, Jayson Rose. The sophomore right- hander boasts an 8-5 record with a 2.62 ERA, and has anchored the Utes’ rotation this season.
“Rose is terrific, and seems to have beaten just about everybody in the PAC 12 and is one of the big reasons they won that league,” Mike Bianco said. “Good fastball and breaking ball, great change up and is a guy that’s won all year long in one of the power conferences. You don’t win in your league without an ace, and certainly he’s been that for them.”
Ole Miss will throw junior right-hander Brady Bramlett in the first game, but the rest of their rotation is not finalized after that, as Bianco said you’ve got to get past the first game before concentrating on anything else. It’s not set in stone, but barring something bizarre happening, sophomore left-hander David Parkinson would likely start its second game.
Offensively, Utah gets it done in a variety of different ways. It does not overwhelm teams with power, having only hit 27 home runs as a team this year, but has five guys that hit at least .300 in terms of batting average.
“They’re an older group, that everybody I’ve talked to talked about how tough they are, and how they compete for 9 innings,” Bianco said.
The general mood at practice on Thursday seemed to be that the guys are prepared, and are just ready to get into action tomorrow night.
“It’s a great time of the year. To be in the postseason, but certainly to play at home, and I think it’s a great reward to not only our players, but our fans alike,” Bianco said. “I think I heard yesterday that they’ve already sold 6700 books (ticket packages), so a lot of people are excited about baseball still being played in Oxford.”
