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Mike Clement: Ole Miss baseball has rings on their fingers, fall ball on their hands

Ben Garrettby: Ben Garrett10/05/22SpiritBen
Mike Clement
Ole Miss hitting coach Mike Clement

The fall intrasquad season is underway for the defending national champion Ole Miss baseball team.

The Rebels scrimmaged twice in three days over the weekend, and already a handful of newcomers have the attention of hitting coach Mike Clement.

He has all the latest in this edition of Talk of Champions, and he also details the challenge of fitting his lineup pieces together, especially with so many of his options strictly limited to first base/designated hitter.

RELATED: Mike Clement, Ole Miss aiming to use first-ever national championship as a springboard

Put simply, the Rebel coaches needs Kemp Alderman in right field.

ā€œThe key factor in that concern is Kemp,ā€ Clement said. ā€œIt would be my hope that Kemp could play right field and hold that down so that he doesnā€™t have to DH. I think first base for him is out of the question. Kemp is either a corner outfielder, DH or catch a little bit.Ā 

ā€œIf we were to start games tomorrow, Kemp is our backup catcher. Heā€™s done a really, really good job back there. Itā€™s going to help us out a lot, and itā€™s going to help his (MLB) draft stock out a lot, if he proves he can play a little bit back there. But I think if we threw out an opening-day lineup tomorrow, it would be my hope he could play corner outfield. Where that helps us, more than anything, is it doesnā€™t clog the DH spot.ā€

Plus, Ben Garrett (Ole Miss Spirit/On3) fails in his attempt to get a batting order for a hypothetical game tomorrow, and Clement talks a difficult 2023 SEC slate (released Tuesday) and the national championship rings.

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