2014 Ole Miss Baseball Season Recap: The Freshmen Talent

Let’s face it! This Ole Miss Baseball season was probably without a doubt one of the greatest Ole Miss Rebels Baseball seasons of all-time. For the next couple of weeks, Ole Hotty Toddy will recap the 2014 Ole Miss Baseball season in many different ways. We will also give a preview to the 2015 season, with upcoming prospect updates and information on who will be returning in 2015. Hope you enjoy Rebel Nation!

A lot of Rebel fans who picked up on Ole Miss Rebels baseball when it started to get deep into the season, may have not realized how much young talent was built around this team. And, the ones that did realize how much of them was freshmen, it was a major concern.

This was suppose to be Coach Mike Bianco‘s rebuilding year. The team was predicted to finish sixth in the SEC West during the preseason. Ole Miss would go on to win the SEC West Divisional Title and surprising all the doubters.

Out of the 35 player roster, the Ole Miss Rebels would come into 2014 with 10 freshmen. That is a lot with nearly thirty percent of the team consisting of new talent.

One of the major concerns at the beginning of the season was: who was going to fill in at shortstop? Little did we know of the talent of Errol Robinson. Bianco’s plan was to move veteran shortstop Austin Anderson to one of the hardest positions in the infield, third base, and start Robinson at shortstop.

Errol Robinson stunned Ole Miss fans with his amazing fielding talent this season. Even though the freshman shortstop finished with 19 errors (most on the team), by the end of the season, some of his amazing outings were shocking not to make SportCenter’s Top 10.

As far as batting, Robinson would play in the tactical part of the lineup much of the 2014 Ole Miss season. He usually batted either 8th or 9th and was seen a lot of times playing a pivotal role of sacrifice bunting runners into position to score. Errol Robinson finished 2014 batting .294, with 63 hits and 19 RBI. His talent will be definitely one to watch this coming 2015 season.

In 2014, Mike Bianco would use several freshmen hitters in the designated hitter position and used them as pinch hitters in several critical plays this season. Most notably of these hitters were Brantley Bell and Colby Bortles.

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Brantley Bell finished 2014 with a .304 batting average, 31 hits and 11 RBI. Some of Bell’s biggest highlight moments came in the regular season.

Colby Bortles really busted onto the scene in the postseason. Bortles would play a huge role in advancing the Ole Miss Rebels in the Oxford Regional and the Lafayette Super-Regional. He would even come up with big hits in the 2014 College World Series, helping the Rebels to stay alive. By the way, in case you were wondering, Colby Bortles is the younger brother of 2014 NFL 1st Round Draft Pick Blake Bortles, quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Some fans may wonder why this gets so much media attention. I assume it has to do with the fact that big brother Blake will be paying for little brother’s college education. How is that not a heart-warming story?

Bortles finished the 2014 Ole Miss Baseball season batting .250, 17 hits, 14 RBI, and 2 home runs. One of those home runs came in the Oxford Regional to tie the game against Washington, en route to the Ole Miss Rebels advancing to the NCAA Super-Regional.

Freshmen right fielder and designated hitter, JB Woodman proved he was very talented in the outfield, by racking up a .988 fielding percentage in 2014. Woodman also put together some very critical at bats for the Rebels. He finished 2014 batting .298, with 50 hits, 20 RBI, and 2 home runs.

The Ole Miss Rebels also pulled out great freshmen talent on the mound this season. Freshmen left-handers Wyatt Short and Evan Anderson made huge strides this season for the Ole Miss pitching staff.

Evan Anderson may have not seen much pitching in the postseason, but he performed well as a mid-week starter in the regular season. Anderson held a 2.11 ERA in 2014, with a 2-0 record through 21.1 innings of work on the mound. He would only allow 9 hits, 8 runs, and walk 10 batters. He would also retire 20 opponents in the 2014 season.

Wyatt Short was a very effective relief pitcher out of the Ole Miss Rebels’ bullpen. Short would see critical moments on the mound in the 2014 College World Series, most notably the win over TCU to advance the Rebels to the final four.

Short finished 2014 with a 2.59 ERA through 31.1 innings of work, with a 3-3 record and 3 saves. Short allowed only 9 runs on 19 hits and struck out 34 opponents (the 5th most out of the Rebel bullpen).

We look forward to these young talented players returning in 2015. It will be interesting to see if players like Bell and Bortles will pick up starting position roles. What if we see Evan Anderson in the weekend starting rotation? Will JB Woodman be the starting right fielder in 2015? Is 2015 the year of Errol Robinson? Let us know your thoughts of the Ole Miss freshmen players of 2014 in the comment section below.