(Photo by: Evan Turner)
Junior Errol Robinson throws to first to make an out during the Rebels’ game against Auburn Friday April 22.
Ole Miss came away with its second consecutive home sweep last weekend against Auburn. The three wins moved the Rebels up to a tie for second place in the SEC West at 10-8. This team is beginning to hit the most crucial stretch of the regular season with four SEC series left. Ole Miss faces Mississippi State on Tuesday at Trustmark Park in Pearl for the annual Governor’s Cup game to begin the week.
Mississippi State took two of three from Ole Miss in its SEC series at the end of March. The Rebels managed to salvage the Sunday game, bringing a five-game losing streak to a halt at the time.
Mike Bianco said after Sunday’s walk-off win, that junior right-hander Chad Smith will start against the Bulldogs. Smith is 3-3 with a 4.89 ERA in eight starts and three relief appearances this season. He was the Saturday starter for the first seven series of the year for Ole Miss, but was pulled from the rotation after taking the loss on Saturday at Mississippi State, a game in which he lasted just an inning and a third, yielding four runs on five hits.
Smith has made a couple of relief appearances since, and drew the start in the second midweek game against Murray State last Wednesday and he pitched well. Smith struck out a career-high nine batters and picked up the win by going five innings and allowing just two hits and no runs.
James McArthur had been the primary midweek starter for Ole Miss, and after winning five of his last six starts, he got a chance at some SEC action when Sean Johnson struggled early on Sunday against Auburn. The freshman right-hander surrendered just two hits and did not allow a run in 4.2 innings, keeping Ole Miss in the game through the middle innings.
“That’ll get lost in all of this, and really might be the biggest factor in why we won,” Bianco said of McArthur after the win. “We’re not in a position, if we don’t pitch like that for the remaining seven plus innings.”
He also said it was time for McArthur to get a taste of SEC action, and with no other options jumping off of the page, it appears that McArthur might join the weekend rotation.
This midweek start for Smith will have a bit of added importance, because with Ole Miss starting its series with LSU on Thursday, the quick turnaround will make deciding who to pitch in the bullpen and for how long a bit tricky for Mike Bianco. A quality start for Smith would help save more of the bullpen for a big late-April top 25 series against the Tigers this weekend.
Mississippi State is coming off of maybe its biggest series win of the year, taking two of three games at LSU over the weekend. It will start Ryan Cyr. The freshman has nine appearances this year, mostly coming in midweek action, and he has not allowed an earned run.
It will be Cyr’s first start. Mississippi State has often used the approach of letting four or five different guys from its bullpen pitch an inning or two to get them through midweek games, and the move to start Cyr suggests that it will be doing that again.
Mississippi State is one of the best teams in the SEC. Where it stands right now, it is in line to be a national seed in the NCAA tournament, and possesses a lineup that is No. 3 in overall team batting in the SEC and has given teams fits, including Ole Miss.
First pitch on Tuesday was originally scheduled for 6 p.m., but has been pushed back to 6:30 p.m.
