The first four Ole Miss hitters reached base on Friday, seemingly setting up a big inning to start the weekend series against Alabama. Then, three straight hits without ball in play followed, and it was all Tide from that point.
Alabama beat the Rebels, 7-4, in game one of the series, dominating all phases and taking advantage of myriad mistakes by Ole Miss (19-10, 4-6). Game two begins at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Here are observations from the Alabama (19-12, 5-5) win over Ole Miss.
Ole Miss is playing bad baseball. We can count the ways, and we’ll hit on a lot of them in the following sentences, but the bottom line is that at least once a weekend the Rebels are really bad fundamentally (and sometimes more often) and it takes away even the opportunity to win games. A bloop in the outfield allowed Alabama to take a 3-2 lead in the third inning. With two outs, the ball fell, as Jacob Gonzalez seemed to be camped under it before TJ McCants called him off at the last second. Starter Hunter Elliott faced only one more batter.
Down 7-2 in the fifth, Calvin Harris was thrown out trying to tag from second to third, ending the inning. It was a great, perfect throw, but there was no reason to even chance it. With two outs, it’s not worth the risk. The runner is already in scoring position, and the scouting report says the right fielder can make that throw.
Alabama starter Garrett McMillan threw 38 pitches in the first inning but only 74 total over the next six frames. Ole Miss only saw 10 pitches in the fifth, 10 pitches in the sixth and nine in the seventh. The Rebels never put a legitimate threat together and didn’t work counts or hit successfully early in the count against hittable fastballs. Ole Miss was 1-for-9 with runners on against McMillan. The Rebels had two base runners in innings three through eight.
McMillan is decent, and Ole Miss had a good opportunity to run him early and turn this into a decent lead and an Alabama bullpen game. Instead, those three outs in the first inning in a row settled the Tide starter. It’s what Mike was the most frustrated about.
Tim Elko had a first-inning, two-run single and two of the Rebels four hits. He reached base three times, equaling all the other Rebels combined. Ole Miss got the leadoff runner on twice and struck out 10 times. Alabama, meanwhile, had 12 hits.
Elliott was OK on Friday, giving up three runs on three hits in three innings, though that bloop drastically changed his line for the worse. He struck out four and walked one, throwing 32 strikes in 49 pitches. Alabama got three of the first four batters on base to start the game, including two hit by pitches, but Elliott fought back with a ground out and a strikeout to limit the damage to one run. Not letting things escalate is a key gift, and Elliott has shown fight with that as a freshman. Bianco said he didn’t throw enough strikes, but I didn’t really see that. He had only two three-ball counts in 15 batters. Elliott did hit those two batters, and maybe it made it seem that he was wilder than he was during the outing.
Dylan DeLucia entered in relief to start the fourth inning and gave up four runs on four hits in just an inning. He allowed the first two batters of the fifth to reach before giving way to Josh Mallitz. Both inherited runners scored. DeLucia yielded three hits and a walk in the fourth inning, leading to two runs. Credit to Nick Suss for this stat: DeLucia has a 11.25 home ERA while giving up only two earned runs in 13.2 innings on the road (UCF, UK and Auburn). It’s a statistical anomaly more than much meaning, other than he’s streaky and not consistent.
This is potentially hindsight, but I don’t like using Elliott and DeLucia but removing them from the roles that seemed fairly comfortable last week. Ole Miss is trying to pitch based off of matchups, but DeLucia was steady in the Friday night role and as a starter in Lexington, and Saturday is an easier mental game for a freshman.
Bianco said that the plan wasn’t necessarily to go to DeLucia tonight. He’s been consistent lately and again reiterated that there’s no rotation and no roles currently. He told me tonight he’s trying to win the current game each time and not looking ahead. I’ll transcribe the full quote and put it on the board but basically he didn’t think Elliott was doing well enough he thought DeLucia was the best shot to win. That was that. He said there’s no starter yet for tomorrow. Not even that it’s the wrong decision given the current roster, but it says everything that things are completely game by game.
Frankly, Elliott has been harmed by his defense two weeks in a row leading to early exits. He’s been fine. But the Rebels are still looking for any consistency. Whether it be DeLucia or other options, good outings don’t seem to build into consistency and it makes for an SEC team searching for wins and frankly a positive identity more than halfway through the season.
Josh Mallitz was a bright spot. He allowed those two inherited runners to score in the fifth but pitched the rest of the way, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings and stranding eight runners. He hasn’t allowed an earned run this season in 13.1 innings.
Kevin Graham hit a two-run home run and was 1-for-4 in his first action since March 5. Graham missed a month with wrist surgery and recovery.
TJ McCants leaving the game had nothing to do with the ankle he injured last week, Bianco said.
Alabama beat the Rebels, 7-4, in game one of the series, dominating all phases and taking advantage of myriad mistakes by Ole Miss (19-10, 4-6). Game two begins at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Here are observations from the Alabama (19-12, 5-5) win over Ole Miss.
Ole Miss is playing bad baseball. We can count the ways, and we’ll hit on a lot of them in the following sentences, but the bottom line is that at least once a weekend the Rebels are really bad fundamentally (and sometimes more often) and it takes away even the opportunity to win games. A bloop in the outfield allowed Alabama to take a 3-2 lead in the third inning. With two outs, the ball fell, as Jacob Gonzalez seemed to be camped under it before TJ McCants called him off at the last second. Starter Hunter Elliott faced only one more batter.
Down 7-2 in the fifth, Calvin Harris was thrown out trying to tag from second to third, ending the inning. It was a great, perfect throw, but there was no reason to even chance it. With two outs, it’s not worth the risk. The runner is already in scoring position, and the scouting report says the right fielder can make that throw.
Alabama starter Garrett McMillan threw 38 pitches in the first inning but only 74 total over the next six frames. Ole Miss only saw 10 pitches in the fifth, 10 pitches in the sixth and nine in the seventh. The Rebels never put a legitimate threat together and didn’t work counts or hit successfully early in the count against hittable fastballs. Ole Miss was 1-for-9 with runners on against McMillan. The Rebels had two base runners in innings three through eight.
McMillan is decent, and Ole Miss had a good opportunity to run him early and turn this into a decent lead and an Alabama bullpen game. Instead, those three outs in the first inning in a row settled the Tide starter. It’s what Mike was the most frustrated about.
Tim Elko had a first-inning, two-run single and two of the Rebels four hits. He reached base three times, equaling all the other Rebels combined. Ole Miss got the leadoff runner on twice and struck out 10 times. Alabama, meanwhile, had 12 hits.
Elliott was OK on Friday, giving up three runs on three hits in three innings, though that bloop drastically changed his line for the worse. He struck out four and walked one, throwing 32 strikes in 49 pitches. Alabama got three of the first four batters on base to start the game, including two hit by pitches, but Elliott fought back with a ground out and a strikeout to limit the damage to one run. Not letting things escalate is a key gift, and Elliott has shown fight with that as a freshman. Bianco said he didn’t throw enough strikes, but I didn’t really see that. He had only two three-ball counts in 15 batters. Elliott did hit those two batters, and maybe it made it seem that he was wilder than he was during the outing.
Dylan DeLucia entered in relief to start the fourth inning and gave up four runs on four hits in just an inning. He allowed the first two batters of the fifth to reach before giving way to Josh Mallitz. Both inherited runners scored. DeLucia yielded three hits and a walk in the fourth inning, leading to two runs. Credit to Nick Suss for this stat: DeLucia has a 11.25 home ERA while giving up only two earned runs in 13.2 innings on the road (UCF, UK and Auburn). It’s a statistical anomaly more than much meaning, other than he’s streaky and not consistent.
This is potentially hindsight, but I don’t like using Elliott and DeLucia but removing them from the roles that seemed fairly comfortable last week. Ole Miss is trying to pitch based off of matchups, but DeLucia was steady in the Friday night role and as a starter in Lexington, and Saturday is an easier mental game for a freshman.
Bianco said that the plan wasn’t necessarily to go to DeLucia tonight. He’s been consistent lately and again reiterated that there’s no rotation and no roles currently. He told me tonight he’s trying to win the current game each time and not looking ahead. I’ll transcribe the full quote and put it on the board but basically he didn’t think Elliott was doing well enough he thought DeLucia was the best shot to win. That was that. He said there’s no starter yet for tomorrow. Not even that it’s the wrong decision given the current roster, but it says everything that things are completely game by game.
Frankly, Elliott has been harmed by his defense two weeks in a row leading to early exits. He’s been fine. But the Rebels are still looking for any consistency. Whether it be DeLucia or other options, good outings don’t seem to build into consistency and it makes for an SEC team searching for wins and frankly a positive identity more than halfway through the season.
Josh Mallitz was a bright spot. He allowed those two inherited runners to score in the fifth but pitched the rest of the way, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings and stranding eight runners. He hasn’t allowed an earned run this season in 13.1 innings.
Kevin Graham hit a two-run home run and was 1-for-4 in his first action since March 5. Graham missed a month with wrist surgery and recovery.
TJ McCants leaving the game had nothing to do with the ankle he injured last week, Bianco said.
