The Ole Miss baseball team is 6-1 on the season and ranked No. 17 in the country by D1baseball. Ole Miss has garnered weekend series wins over No. 2 Louisville and Florida International University along with midweek victories over Arkansas State and Memphis.
Wyatt Short pitches during a game in the 2014 college world series. (AP Photo: Michael Spomer)
The Ole Miss bullpen has been dominant over the course of the season, keeping the Rebels in the ball games when the starters were either ineffective or had to be pulled due to pitch count.
Ole Miss has kept themselves in the previous two midweek games with phenomenal pitching from the bullpen after falling down early in each respective contest. The Rebel bullpen has a .75 ERA over the first two midweek games.
In the first mid-week contest, James McArthur was pulled after giving up two runs in three innings. The bullpen gapped it until the rest of the game only giving up one run on three hits.
In the second mid-week contest, McArthur struggled, unable to get out of the third inning. The freshman gave up five runs and only recorded seven outs. Once again, the Rebel bullpen bridged it to the end, only giving up two earned runs over 6.2 innings.
A consistent relief arm during the midweek has been freshmen pitcher Andy Pagnozzi. Pagnozzi, the son of former major leaguer Tom Pagnozzi, has thrown 6.2 innings of relief during the mid-week and only surrendered two runs. Pagnozzi also recorded 2.1 innings of scoreless relief against Florida International opening weekend.
As solid as the Rebel bullpen has been during the mid-week contests, they’ve been really sharp on the weekends as well.
During the first weekend series against Florida International, the Rebels bullpen gave up only three runs over 13.1 innings— good for a 1.45 ERA. With the starting pitching not going past the five-inning mark against the Panthers, the Rebels found themselves in need of solid bullpen performances and got them.
Then, this past weekend, the Rebel bullpen came in clutch again.
With Brady Bramlett not going past the fifth inning after accumulating a high pitch count, the Rebels needed to piece together four more innings to get the series opening victory against the highly-ranked Cardinals. They did just that, getting the twelve remaining outs and only surrendering one earned run. Wyatt Short recorded the save on the night going 1.2 innings to close out the Cardinals.
After falling 4-0 last Saturday to the Cardinals despite a great outing from starting pitcher Chad Smith, the Rebels found themselves needing bullpen help again.
Sean Johnson pitched well, only surrendering two runs in the first inning. The bullpen, however, sealed the deal again for the Rebels.
David Parkinson was masterful coming in for Johnson, going 1.2 innings and hand the ball off to Will Stokes and Wyatt Short. After Stokes gave up a base hit the Rebels had the luxury of handing the ball to Short again, and he did what he does in shutting down the Cardinals to give the Rebels the series victory.
Short has pitched 5.1 innings this season and hasn’t given up a run. The junior pitcher was able to record five out saves twice this previous weekend, which is a good sign for the Rebels that he can pitch on multiple days during the weekend for an extended period of time. Short over his career has a 1.78 ERA with 16 saves.
Parkinson has been a solid bullpen arm for the Rebels. He’s gone six innings and only given up one earned run. Parkinson is a key cog for the Rebels, as he and Short are the only left-handed options that have seen extended periods of time so far this season.
The Rebels’ bullpen strength will be key for them as they move toward SEC play. If Ole Miss can consistently shut down games after taking a sixth inning lead, they’ll be tough to beat come SEC play. The Rebels’ run to Omaha in 2014 was fueled by solid bullpen pitchers, including Aaron Greenwood, Scott Weathersby, Josh Laxer, Jeremy Massie and the aforementioned Short.
– Collin Brister
