On3 Things to Know: Ole Miss baseball heads to Texas A&M looking to end SEC skid
After a weird start to the week the Ole Miss baseball team heads to College Station for a crucial early-season Southeastern Conference series with a Texas A&M also looking to try and right its season.
Ole Miss has lost its first six SEC games to start a season for the first time since 1996 and for a second straight year letting things get away from them early. As a way to try and course correct head coach Mike Bianco is making a shuffle to his weekend rotation.
Friday’s starter is still Jack Dougherty while Xavier Rivas is moving up a day to the Saturday starter slot and reliever JT Quinn is getting his first SEC start on Sunday. The move bumps freshman Grayson Saunier out of the rotation and into the bullpen.
“We got to pitch better,” Bianco said. “We gotta pitch better and Quinn’s pitched well in the middle of the week, he’s pitched well in relief and giving him an opportunity to start. Revis has pitched well the first two conference weekends, so we’re going to move him up to Saturday.”
Saunier has been the Rebels Saturday starter for the first six weekends of the season but for now he will be working out of the bullpen. He was scheduled to get his first relief work in during Tuesday’s game against Southern Mississippi in Pearl, that never technically happened, but he was out sick with flu-like symptoms, according to Bianco.
LEADING OFF
- Ole Miss travels to Bryan-College Station this weekend for a three-game set with the Aggies of Texas A&M
- Last year’s series between the two teams was the regular season finale for both with the Aggies taking two out of three in Oxford
- The Rebels have won three of the last five series, including a three-game sweep in 2019. They have also won the last two non-series matchups, beating Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament in 2019 and 2018
- The Rebels and the Aggies were both College World Series teams in 2022, but did not match up against each other in the postseason
- Mitch Murrell leads the SEC in pitching appearances with 13 total appearances out of the bullpen so far in 2023
- Kemp Alderman is ranked eighth in the SEC in RBI with 34 RBI in 24 games. He is averaging 1.42 RBI per game. Alderman is also ranked eighth in the SEC in home runs with 10, one short of his 2022 total
- Alderman is currently riding a 19-game on-base streak dating back to February 25, the longest streak of the season for Ole Miss. He also owns the longest hitting streak at 12 games (2/25-3/11)
- Ethan Groff is ranked eighth in the SEC in stolen bases with 10. He has only been caught stealing once in 11 tries
- Ole Miss is ranked third in the SEC in fielding percentage (.981) and fifth in batting average (.307)
- The Rebels fell out of the top-25 in half of national polls this week, coming in at No. 22 in the NCBWA poll, No. 23 in Perfect Game’s poll, and No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches Poll
GOING PRO
With the MLB and MiLB seasons set to start up this coming weekend, three former Rebels found themselves ranked in the Top-30 Prospects Lists for their organizations. Gunnar Hoglund is ranked as the No. 15 prospect in the Oakland Athletics organization, Ryan Rolison is ranked as the No. 28 prospect in the Colorado Rockies organization, and Doug Nikhazy is ranked as the No. 30 prospect in the Cleveland Guardians organization.
Lance Lynn (Chicago White Sox), Nick Fortes (Miami Marlins), Chad Smith (Oakland Athletics), Drew Pomeranz (San Diego Padres), and Ryan Rolison (Colorado Rockies) will all start the 2023 season on the active 40-man MLB roster for their respective clubs.
SECOND TO ONE
With two more victories, head coach Mike Bianco will pass the legendary Skip Bertman for second-most wins by an SEC head coach. Bianco currently has 869 wins as the head coach of the Rebels, trailing just behind Bertman’s 870 wins as the head coach of LSU from 1984-2001. Bianco played for Bertman at LSU from 1988-89 and coached on his staff from 1993-97.
BASH BROS
During the first two games of Ole Miss’ series against Purdue, Kemp Alderman and TJ McCants became the first pair of teammates to combine for six home runs in two-consecutive games since 1998. McCants hit two in Friday’s matchup and added one more Saturday while Alderman hit two on Saturday after hitting one the night before. Alderman now leads the team with eight long balls while McCants is in second with six.
The last pair to accomplish the feat were brothers Jason and Josh Huisman (3/15/1998 at Kentucky and 3/17/1998 at NE Louisiana). Jason Huisman hit two home runs in each game while Josh Huisman added one in each.
COMING HOME
Jacob Gonzalez has been climbing the Ole Miss all-time runs scored leaderboard this season, currently ranked ninth all-time with 165 runs scored in his career. Gonzalez is only 33 runs off the top spot with about half of the season still left to play. Former player and current Ole Miss Sports Network color analyst Brad Henderson owns the record, scoring 198 runs over the course of his 203 career games.
Gonzalez owns the second and fifth-highest records for runs scored in a single season with 73 in 2021 and 67 in 2022.
WHO YA GONNA CALL?
With the game tied 6-6 in the 10th inning, Kemp Alderman hit a solo walk-off home run to give the Rebels the win in game two against Purdue. Alderman’s blast was the team’s first true walk-off (9+ innings) of the season and the first since he hit a walk-off home run on April 24, 2021 against LSU.
HOMERS ARE CONTAGIOUS
From March 7 to March 11 the Rebels hit three or more home runs in three-consecutive games for the first time since the 2019 Oxford Regional. They hit three in a midweek win over Southern Miss, three in a series opening win over Purdue, and then four in their extra-inning win in game two against the Boilermakers. TJ McCants hit four of the 10 home runs, Kemp Alderman hit three, Peyton Chatagnier hit two, and Anthony Calarco hit one.
