Ole Miss routed Kentucky, 10-1, on Sunday to claim the series in Lexington and move to 4-5 in the SEC. The Rebels, who badly needed this one because of math if nothing else, scored six runs in the fifth and got on base 23 times in the game.
Ole Miss plays USM Tuesday in Pearl before a three-game home set with Alabama starting on Friday.
I know it’s only the first week of April, but that was a huge swing game for Ole Miss. A loss and 3-6 in the league would seem fairly daunting when taking about postseason positioning, but with the win, Ole Miss can get back to or above .500 in the SEC against the Tide if it plays well back in Oxford. The Rebels showed toughness on Sunday. The early innings offensively were more of the same, but then the Tim Elko home run sort of shook the cobwebs off and they played well the rest of the day.
Jack Washburn was terrific in his first league start, and Mike Bianco’s all-new rotation did a phenomenal job over the three games. Combined, Dylan DeLucia, Hunter Elliott and Washburn allowed one earned run in 16 innings — three unearned runs scored with them on the mound.
Washburn went five innings, only giving up a home run in his final frame. He scattered four hits and struck out six with two walks. Command has been inconsistent in his previous starts, and he’s struggled with early composure, but in Lexington those were strengths instead of weaknesses. He threw a lot of strikes and worked his fastball to both sides of the plate — really finding success in on hitters. His breaking ball is one of the best on the team, and Kentucky couldn’t square him off and struggled with the fastball which played the breaking ball up even more.
I was really impressed with him mentally. Ole Miss came off that terrible day Sunday and didn’t do anything offensively the first three innings, but he just threw up zeroes and gave the offense some time. Bianco went with two of the tougher guys on the team with DeLucia and Washburn in pretty critical spots, and both paid off.
Half of Ole Miss’ runs came via home runs, but the Rebels did manufacture runners and opportunities successfully on Sunday. The four-through-nine spots in the order went 11-for-22, and Jacob Gonzalez hit a three-run home run from the leadoff spot that mostly put the game away.
Kentucky pitchers threw the ball all over the place with fewer than 60 percent of pitches for strikes, and Ole Miss walked nine times, but the Rebels took the charity and lengthened at-bats. There’s improvement in that, as lately Ole Miss has swung at everything early in counts and not allowed pitchers to get in trouble. UK got through the first inning on 10 pitches despite Justin Bench seeing seven of those, but from there Ole Miss showed some patience.
In the middle innings especially, Ole Miss did a better job than we’ve recently seen with taking the ball up the middle and the other way. It seemed to run through the lineup after Ole Miss go the two in the fourth and started hitting in the fifth. That has to continue, but it was a positive sign.
Ole Miss is 2-0 in road series, winning at Auburn and at Kentucky. Those are good weekends, and the blowout losses aren’t optimal, as the Rebels have to find a way to be in every game to maximize opportunities, but on the whole you take the road series wins and move on. The Tennessee weekend was a disaster, and Ole Miss played terribly on top of the losses and should have won on Sunday (that was a tremendous missed opportunity), so this isn’t being polyanna, but with the way the Volunteers are winning, it may just be what it is and move on. Tennessee just swept Vanderbilt in Nashville, outscoring the ‘Dores 16-4, and is 9-0 in the SEC. Ole Miss’ goal is to get back above .500 before going to Fayetteville.
Hayden Leatherwood went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk and had nice at-bats all weekend. He stuck out a lot to me. Also, Kemp Alderman was 0-for-2 but walked three times. He’s so improved with his approach.
Jack Dougherty’s outing won’t really be remembered in a blowout, but he threw three scoreless innings with 31 strikes in 46 pitches and three strikeouts. He nibbled a little with the fastball, but overall he was really sharp. He seems most comfortable in that multi-inning role.
Kentucky was 2-for-19 with runners on base and 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Good situational pitching but that’s a scary amount of chances to have only given up one run.
Ole Miss plays USM Tuesday in Pearl before a three-game home set with Alabama starting on Friday.
I know it’s only the first week of April, but that was a huge swing game for Ole Miss. A loss and 3-6 in the league would seem fairly daunting when taking about postseason positioning, but with the win, Ole Miss can get back to or above .500 in the SEC against the Tide if it plays well back in Oxford. The Rebels showed toughness on Sunday. The early innings offensively were more of the same, but then the Tim Elko home run sort of shook the cobwebs off and they played well the rest of the day.
Jack Washburn was terrific in his first league start, and Mike Bianco’s all-new rotation did a phenomenal job over the three games. Combined, Dylan DeLucia, Hunter Elliott and Washburn allowed one earned run in 16 innings — three unearned runs scored with them on the mound.
Washburn went five innings, only giving up a home run in his final frame. He scattered four hits and struck out six with two walks. Command has been inconsistent in his previous starts, and he’s struggled with early composure, but in Lexington those were strengths instead of weaknesses. He threw a lot of strikes and worked his fastball to both sides of the plate — really finding success in on hitters. His breaking ball is one of the best on the team, and Kentucky couldn’t square him off and struggled with the fastball which played the breaking ball up even more.
I was really impressed with him mentally. Ole Miss came off that terrible day Sunday and didn’t do anything offensively the first three innings, but he just threw up zeroes and gave the offense some time. Bianco went with two of the tougher guys on the team with DeLucia and Washburn in pretty critical spots, and both paid off.
Half of Ole Miss’ runs came via home runs, but the Rebels did manufacture runners and opportunities successfully on Sunday. The four-through-nine spots in the order went 11-for-22, and Jacob Gonzalez hit a three-run home run from the leadoff spot that mostly put the game away.
Kentucky pitchers threw the ball all over the place with fewer than 60 percent of pitches for strikes, and Ole Miss walked nine times, but the Rebels took the charity and lengthened at-bats. There’s improvement in that, as lately Ole Miss has swung at everything early in counts and not allowed pitchers to get in trouble. UK got through the first inning on 10 pitches despite Justin Bench seeing seven of those, but from there Ole Miss showed some patience.
In the middle innings especially, Ole Miss did a better job than we’ve recently seen with taking the ball up the middle and the other way. It seemed to run through the lineup after Ole Miss go the two in the fourth and started hitting in the fifth. That has to continue, but it was a positive sign.
Ole Miss is 2-0 in road series, winning at Auburn and at Kentucky. Those are good weekends, and the blowout losses aren’t optimal, as the Rebels have to find a way to be in every game to maximize opportunities, but on the whole you take the road series wins and move on. The Tennessee weekend was a disaster, and Ole Miss played terribly on top of the losses and should have won on Sunday (that was a tremendous missed opportunity), so this isn’t being polyanna, but with the way the Volunteers are winning, it may just be what it is and move on. Tennessee just swept Vanderbilt in Nashville, outscoring the ‘Dores 16-4, and is 9-0 in the SEC. Ole Miss’ goal is to get back above .500 before going to Fayetteville.
Hayden Leatherwood went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk and had nice at-bats all weekend. He stuck out a lot to me. Also, Kemp Alderman was 0-for-2 but walked three times. He’s so improved with his approach.
Jack Dougherty’s outing won’t really be remembered in a blowout, but he threw three scoreless innings with 31 strikes in 46 pitches and three strikeouts. He nibbled a little with the fastball, but overall he was really sharp. He seems most comfortable in that multi-inning role.
Kentucky was 2-for-19 with runners on base and 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Good situational pitching but that’s a scary amount of chances to have only given up one run.
