Ole Miss dives into the second half of Southeastern Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against Auburn at Swayze Field.
Ole Miss handled Memphis and Murray State on back-to-back days in the midweek and scored 15 combined runs in the two games. An offense that has come and gone this year will look to take that success into the weekend.
(Photo by: Evan Turner)
Junior Colby Bortles hits a ball during Ole Miss’ win over Murray St. Wednesday night.
“I thought we did really well,” Mike Bianco said after the win on Wednesday. “The offense has been good the last two days.”
The Auburn team coming into Oxford this weekend is one of the best hitting lineups in the SEC and will be a challenge for a weekend rotation that still is not solidified on the back end.
“They’re going to be a little different team, really offensive, a team that has scored a ton of runs and has a good batting average,” Bianco said.
Auburn ranks second in the SEC in team batting average with a mark of .317 and is also second in slugging percentage at .413. The Tigers come in at fifth in the conference in runs scored with 263, Ole Miss has scored 234 which is good for tenth.
Two Auburn hitters boast averages over .400 in Anfernee Grier and Joshua Palacios, and first baseman Niko Buentello is hitting .373 along with 40 RBIs, which leads the team.
“Anfernee Grier is having a tremendous, player of the year, type year so we are going to have to pitch really well,” Bianco said.
This weekend will feature two pitching rotations that have shown signs of promise, but have not produced as consistently as they would like to this year.
Brady Bramlett will get the ball for Ole Miss in game one. The junior right-hander is coming off of back-to-back starts in which he went at least six innings and did not allow an earned run. He gave up just three hits to Alabama in his last start, a shutout win.
Auburn will start Cole Lipscomb. It has been an up and down year for Lipscomb to say the least. The senior right-hander was Auburn’s opening day starter, and has since been removed and put back into the rotation two different times, the most recent coming this weekend against Ole Miss.
Lipscomb yielded four runs to Tennessee in an extended 6.2 inning relief outing last weekend.
David Parkinson will start on Saturday for the third consecutive week for Ole Miss. After winning his first start, Parkinson actually better in his second, going seven innings and allowing just a run while scattering six hits. But it was not enough and he took the loss as Ole Miss was blanked 2-0 by the Crimson Tide.
The Tigers will send out another senior right-hander in Justin Camp. He is 3-2 with a 3.30 era and tossed a complete game, two-hit shutout last Saturday against Tennessee.
Mike Bianco hasn’t announced a Sunday starter ahead of time since the SEC opener at Tennessee, and he’s doing the same again as the Rebels are TBA on its third starter. The last two weeks, It’s seemingly been a matter of whether junior closer-turned-starter Wyatt Short is needed in relief in the first two games of the series. He was not used against Arkansas in the first two games, and drew his first start in game three of that series. He was needed in game one against Alabama, therefore Sean Johnson drew the start in the series finale.
Let’s be honest, Ole Miss does not have a definite answer on Sundays. The team has tried Short and Andy Pagnozzi, and those two are still possible pieces to the puzzle, but neither of their starts jumped off of the page. The Rebels do, however, have a 5-0 record complimented by a 3.18 ERA in James McArthur. The right-hander has pitched well after a slow start to the year, and if it were not for a foot injury in the offseason, he might have been in the rotation to start the year.
Granted, it has been against less-lethal lineups win the midweek, but at this point, why not try it? It remains to be seen what Bianco will do, but this option certainly seems to make sense.
Auburn has not yet announced their Sunday starter.
Analysis:
Ole Miss can’t improve its NCAA tournament résumé this weekend, but it sure can hurt it. Butch Thompson is a great coach and will soon build a fine program in Auburn, but the fact of the matter is that it is his first year and Auburn is 18-19 (5-10).
This is an opportunity for the Rebels to make up ground in the SEC West as it currently sits three games behind first place Texas A&M. I want to say Ole Miss sweeps, but I do not trust the pitching to be sufficient all three days, especially against a lineup that ranks in the top five in the SEC in most offensive categories. Ole Miss gets two, but one game gets away from them due to the Auburn bats.
