Mike Bianco was pleased with a specific play on Tuesday in the win over UT Martin. The Rebels were suddenly in a competitive game as the Skyhawks scored two in the sixth inning to cut the lead to three runs, and UT Martin seemed on its way to another run when Isaac Humphrey picked up the ball at the wall, threw it to Luke Cheng, and Cheng relayed a strike to Campbell Smithwick to cut down the runner at the plate.
Monday's practice had been heavy on fundamentals after the Rebels bumbled their way to a series loss at Mississippi State last weekend. Bianco, hopeful and optimistic, thought the defensive play was a sign of maybe what's to come when Ole Miss hosts Auburn this weekend for the final regular season series.
“Kind of back to fundamentals,” Bianco said. “I just felt like this past weekend it was disappointing because, fundamentally, we didn’t play great baseball. You got to make plays to get off the field and we did. We talked about cutoffs (at practice). We talked about backing up bases. We talked about a lot of different things. So, that was one of the things we covered.”
Ole Miss (35-17, 14-13) is No. 18 in the RPI and currently ninth in the SEC standings. The Rebels would face Missouri on Tuesday in Hoover if the season ended today. Ole Miss has the tiebreaker over Florida, Kentucky and Alabama and loses the tiebreaker to Oklahoma, Tennessee and Mississippi State. Auburn (37-`15) is No. 2 in the RPI and up to 16-11 in the SEC after a dominant sweep of South Carolina, where the Tigers scored 46 runs in the three games.
Brayden Randle is listed as probably for Ole Miss this weekend, as he's ahead of schedule from his finger surgery a couple weeks ago. He incision is healed, and Randle has taken batting practice and thrown during infield practice this week.
Game 1: LHP Hunter Elliott (7-3, 3.66 ERA) vs. RHP Cam Tilly (3-1, 4.38 ERA) - 6:30 p.m.
Game 2: RHP Riley Maddox (5-5, 5.46 ERA) vs. RHP Samuel Dutton (6-2, 2.86 ERA) - 7 p.m.
Game 3: RHP Mason Nichols (3-2, 5.36 ERA) vs. RHP Christian Chatterton (4-1, 4.10 ERA) 1:30 p.m.
For the second week in a row, Butch Thompson is leaving Dutton on normal Friday rest and throwing Tilly on Thursday. On paper, that makes tonight's game critical for the Rebels.
SEC STANDINGS
Monday's practice had been heavy on fundamentals after the Rebels bumbled their way to a series loss at Mississippi State last weekend. Bianco, hopeful and optimistic, thought the defensive play was a sign of maybe what's to come when Ole Miss hosts Auburn this weekend for the final regular season series.
“Kind of back to fundamentals,” Bianco said. “I just felt like this past weekend it was disappointing because, fundamentally, we didn’t play great baseball. You got to make plays to get off the field and we did. We talked about cutoffs (at practice). We talked about backing up bases. We talked about a lot of different things. So, that was one of the things we covered.”
Ole Miss (35-17, 14-13) is No. 18 in the RPI and currently ninth in the SEC standings. The Rebels would face Missouri on Tuesday in Hoover if the season ended today. Ole Miss has the tiebreaker over Florida, Kentucky and Alabama and loses the tiebreaker to Oklahoma, Tennessee and Mississippi State. Auburn (37-`15) is No. 2 in the RPI and up to 16-11 in the SEC after a dominant sweep of South Carolina, where the Tigers scored 46 runs in the three games.
Brayden Randle is listed as probably for Ole Miss this weekend, as he's ahead of schedule from his finger surgery a couple weeks ago. He incision is healed, and Randle has taken batting practice and thrown during infield practice this week.
Game 1: LHP Hunter Elliott (7-3, 3.66 ERA) vs. RHP Cam Tilly (3-1, 4.38 ERA) - 6:30 p.m.
Game 2: RHP Riley Maddox (5-5, 5.46 ERA) vs. RHP Samuel Dutton (6-2, 2.86 ERA) - 7 p.m.
Game 3: RHP Mason Nichols (3-2, 5.36 ERA) vs. RHP Christian Chatterton (4-1, 4.10 ERA) 1:30 p.m.
For the second week in a row, Butch Thompson is leaving Dutton on normal Friday rest and throwing Tilly on Thursday. On paper, that makes tonight's game critical for the Rebels.
SEC STANDINGS
| Team | SEC record |
| Texas | 20-7 |
| Arkansas | 18-9 |
| LSU | 17-10 |
| Georgia | 16-11 |
| Vanderbilt | 16-11 |
| Auburn | 16-11 |
| Tennessee | 15-12 |
| Alabama | 15-12 |
| Ole Miss | 14-13 |
| Kentucky | 13-14 |
| Oklahoma | 13-14 |
| Florida | 13-14 |
| Mississippi State | 12-15 |
| Texas A&M | 10-17 |
| South Carolina | 5-22 |
| Missouri | 3-24 |
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