No. 11 Ole Miss 27-9 (9-6) hosts Little Rock for the annual Kids' Day game at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. The majority of the attendance will be local elementary school kids. Last year there were approximately 7,000 people in the stadium. The Rebels are coming off a series loss to Tennessee and start a three-game set at Carolina on Thursday. The Gamecocks (2-13 SEC) were swept by Texas A&M this past weekend -- giving up two grand slams in the ninth inning of the finale after being ahead at one point, 12-2.
Freshman Cade Townsend gets the ball for the Rebels, and he's coming off his best outing of the season. The heralded newcomer has struggled with command most of the season, and had walked 11 in 9.2 innings before last week. He threw four shutout innings against Alcorn State with five strikeouts and no walks, giving up one hit. Ole Miss beat the Braves, 29-1, but the main takeaway that might translate to the future is Townsend's command. He threw 65 percent of his pitches for strikes and routinely got ahead of batters. He had allowed four runs in only 0.1 innings in his two previous appearances before Alcorn, allowing six of seven batters to reach in those two outings.
Townsend admitted after the game that he felt better mentally against the Braves because of their lack of ability at the plate and thought he could translate that moving forward with the added confidence. Little Rock is 15-19 overall but has won five straight including a three-game sweep of Morehead State. The Trojans are 0-4 against Memphis and Murray State -- the two common opponents with Ole Miss. The Rebels are 3-0 in those games.
Ole Miss is looking for as much pitching depth as possible, and Townsend has one of the highest ceilings on the staff. He's scuffling in his first season, but Tuesday is another opportunity to take a step and potentially get into the weekend bullpen mix moving forward. Ole Miss is No. 12 in RPI, and Little Rock is 254.
Freshman Cade Townsend gets the ball for the Rebels, and he's coming off his best outing of the season. The heralded newcomer has struggled with command most of the season, and had walked 11 in 9.2 innings before last week. He threw four shutout innings against Alcorn State with five strikeouts and no walks, giving up one hit. Ole Miss beat the Braves, 29-1, but the main takeaway that might translate to the future is Townsend's command. He threw 65 percent of his pitches for strikes and routinely got ahead of batters. He had allowed four runs in only 0.1 innings in his two previous appearances before Alcorn, allowing six of seven batters to reach in those two outings.
Townsend admitted after the game that he felt better mentally against the Braves because of their lack of ability at the plate and thought he could translate that moving forward with the added confidence. Little Rock is 15-19 overall but has won five straight including a three-game sweep of Morehead State. The Trojans are 0-4 against Memphis and Murray State -- the two common opponents with Ole Miss. The Rebels are 3-0 in those games.
Ole Miss is looking for as much pitching depth as possible, and Townsend has one of the highest ceilings on the staff. He's scuffling in his first season, but Tuesday is another opportunity to take a step and potentially get into the weekend bullpen mix moving forward. Ole Miss is No. 12 in RPI, and Little Rock is 254.
