Mike Bianco is no stranger to having teams get hot at the right time. In 2005, his team won six of its last nine games to end the year and sparked a run that led them to the SEC championship game, and also the opportunity to play host to Texas in the program’s first ever super regional. His 2006 team started 1-5 before finishing 17-7 on its way to winning the SEC tournament and hosting a second-consecutive super regional against Miami. Things seemed to click later in the year.
It appears this year’s edition of his team, one that on the mound has dealt with the growing pains of getting acclimated to pitching in the SEC while overcoming a slow start offensively, have arrived at a similar cusp this year.
(Photo By: Taylor Cook)
James McArthur pitches during the Ole Miss versus Southern Miss game on Wednesday.
Ole Miss has won five of its last six SEC games including its first series win against No. 9 LSU since 2010. Since being swept by South Carolina at home, and stymied by Dakota Hudson and Austin Sexton in Starkville en route to a 2-6 start in SEC play, it has since found its footing. The Rebels are 10-3 in their last 13 SEC games. It appears, for now at least, it has found an answer at the end of its rotation in freshman James McArthur, who has given up just one run in his last 26.1 innings pitched.
That offense bailed them out at times early in the year, but left them hanging when SEC play began, appears to be back to doing the former.
(Photo by: Evan Turner)
Henri Lartigue follows through a swing during a game earlier this season.
Henri Lartigue is hitting .381 in SEC play. The junior catcher’s 31 hits and .433 on base percentage appeared to be capable of carrying a lineup down the home stretch of its SEC schedule. That is until J.B. Woodman reminded everyone he is someone to watch when the MLB draft rolls around in June with a 6-12 weekend at the plate with three home runs against LSU. Add eight more RBIs and he moved into the team lead with 18 in league play.
“In every phase of the game he was tremendous, and was an impact in every game,” Ole Miss Head Coach Mike Bianco said after Saturday’s win. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a position player for three games in a row just play so well and be so impactful in each game.”
Not to mention his three assists to the plate that neutralized an extremely agressive Tiger team on the base paths.
He wasn’t the only one, though. Tate Blackman had a three-hit game twice this past weekend, and if you add in freshman Ryan Olenek, who by the way peppered a first pitch fastball over the wall in the ninth two Sundays ago against Auburn to cap a three-run comeback in a sweep, the Rebels now have four guys batting .300 in SEC play. And Colby Bortles three-hit game with a long ball on Sunday appeared to be yet another sign that this offense may finally be tapping its potential. The knock on this lineup was its inability to hit good pitching, and it certainly did that to a degree this past weekend.
Ole Miss is 33-12 and 12-9 in SEC play. It planted itself firmly in the middle of the hosting conversation. It has three games at Georgia this weekend, before its penultimate series at home against Kentucky, followed by a trip to Blue Bell Park to meet No. 2 Texas A&M to end the year. With the exception of drawing the Aggies to end the year, the schedule could be more daunting.
This team needs four more SEC wins to get to that magic No. 16 and feel good about its hosting chances, something that seems a bit more attainable than it did a month ago.
Of course, it’s entirely possible this run could just be a bright spot in an otherwise pedestrian season. It’s entirely possible the back end of a weekend rotation Bianco spent a month patching up could give way again. But when you look down into a bullpen that’s been dominant all year, and see names like Short, Pagnozzi, Feigl and Stokes, there appears to be a safety net.
It’s surely possible that this offensive stretch is just a spark that produces no flame, but what if it’s not?
Can you really say there’s not enough there? Woodman and Robinson played in Omaha. Bortles and Lartigue are now juniors and Olenek sure does not appear to be intimidated by much.
What if David Parkinson and McArthur keep making enough pitches to turn it over to a bullpen that’s been dominant this year?
What if this brand current of baseball is more the result of a bunch of moving pieces finally meshing rather than a temporary stroke of luck?
Sure, it would have been nice to beat South Carolina at home, or to have found a way to get two games in Tuscaloosa. No one would argue that the Rebels have let a couple of opportunities go by the wayside this year. But it didn’t on Sunday, and it provided a sense of satisfaction and maybe even vindication for Mike Bianco’s club.
“We needed this one in the sense that we needed to beat a team that is right there with us,” Bianco said on Saturday. “We haven’t done that. We’ve had a great year, but we haven’t played our best ball against the best teams.”
All of those questions will soon be answered, but one thing is for certain: Ole Miss is trending in the right direction, and like some of Bianco’s previous clubs, it’s coming at the right time.
