The doctor ordered a necessary shot in the arm for Ole Miss over the weekend: a road series win over the Arkansas Razorbacks. Ole Miss took home victories on Saturday and Sunday after Will Ethridge and the Rebels fell 5-3 on Friday. The Rebels answered on Saturday with a 4-3 win, with the rubber match going to Ole Miss after its lineup bludgeoned the Razorback pitching staff in a come-from-behind 10-5 victory.
Ole Miss pitcher Zack Phillips pitches the ball at the series against Long Beach State earlier this season. The Rebels were victorious this weekend, with a series win against the Arkansas Razorbacks. File photo by Christian Johnson
First base: The usual suspects bash their way to series victory.
In games one and two, Arkansas and Ole Miss played close games. Sunday was heading for a similar finish until the Rebels started scoring in bunches. The fifth, sixth, and seventh innings saw Ole Miss score eight runs, storming to a five-run lead. Sunday’s offensive outburst can be attributed to the vaunted members of the lineup coming through.
The one through five batters combined for 11 hits, good for a .500 average on the day. Tyler Keenan was the sluggish member of the group, going 1-3. However, he drew 3 walks and added an RBI. Ryan Olenek, Grae Kessinger, Thomas Dillard and Cole Zabowski all had multi-hit games. The five combined to knock in 8 of the 10 runs scored.
The top five were not alone in seeing the ball well, as the team drew 12 walks, but this team is at its best when the big names perform. Getting a series win in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a big deal, and the big names in Ole Miss’s lineup deserve the credit for finishing it out.
Second base: Head coach Mike Bianco has unearthed a gem in the bullpen.
In a season where Ole Miss is getting little to no production out of Greer Holston and Jordan Fowler, two expected workhorses for this pitching staff, Coach Bianco needed to find other answers.
Tyler Myers is that answer.
The junior right-hander has now thrown 10 consecutive innings of scoreless baseball after blanking the Razorbacks over the final four innings of Sunday’s game. Myers is proving to be useful in one-inning situations or long-relief outings. With young and inexperienced starting pitching, someone has to be able to keep the team alive and get to the end-of-game relievers.
Myers’s emergence allows Houston Roth to give the team flexibility in the starting rotation by locking up the long-relief role. Myers is on his way to making an impact on this team, not unlike how Parker Caracci broke into the team a year ago.
Third base: One last change needs to happen to the weekend rotation.
Freshman Doug Nikhazy was an in-season addition to the second slot in the rotation for Ole Miss. He replaced junior college transfer Zack Phillips because of Phillips’s inability to command the strike zone. Will Ethridge is performing as anybody would expect a Friday starter in the SEC.
There remains a problem on Sundays. Freshman Gunnar Hoglund has flashed the potential that made him a first-round draft pick, but his longest outing of the season was five innings. After only lasting three innings on Sunday, he is up to four starts where he did not complete four innings. Hoglund has a bright future as a starting pitcher in an Ole Miss uniform. However, Houston Roth offers Mike Bianco an experienced arm that would bring stability to the rotation.
Roth is rounding into form after a shoulder injury slowed him down coming into the season. Having Roth throw on the weekends while Hoglund features as the midweek starter can allow the freshman to continue to improve.
Going 2-1 improves the team’s record to 20-9 and 5-4 in conference. The Rebels come home for a series against the Florida Gators next weekend.
