2014 Ole Miss Baseball Season Recap: The Power Hitters
By Dave Bevan
Let’s face it! This Ole Miss Baseball season was probably without a doubt one of the greatest Ole Miss 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!
One of the big keys to the Ole Miss Rebels’ success in the 2014 season was the big hitters on offense. Austin Anderson, Auston Bousfield, Sikes Orvis, and Will Allen played key roles in the Rebels making it all the way to the final four in the 2014 College World Series. In this article, we will take a look at each one of these listed players above and how well they did in 2014.
Austin Anderson finished his senior season at Ole Miss in 2014. He will go down for what he did on April 4, 2014. During the regular season game against Auburn, in the bottom of the 13th inning, Anderson hit a three run walk-off home run to win the game for the Rebels. What made the home run more spectacular was that Anderson was suppose to have been intentionally walked.
Anderson finished the 2014 season batting .323, 41 RBI, and 5 home runs. He finished 3rd on the team with 87 hits.
Auston Bousfield led the Ole Miss Rebels in 2014 with 96 hits on the season. Bousfield finished the season with .336 batting average (2nd in the Ole Miss starting rotation), 50 RBI, and 6 home runs.
One of Bousfield’s shining moments of 2014 came in the regular season when Ole Miss beat (at the time) No. 1 South Carolina. Bousfield hit a game winning grand slam to put the Rebels over the Gamecocks. At the end of the regular season, Bousfield was named the 2014 C-Spire Ferriss Trophy award winner, which is the trophy awarded annually to the top baseball player in the state of Mississippi.
Sikes Orvis was the power hitter in the Ole Miss Rebels’ lineup in the 2014 season. Orvis led the Rebels in home runs with a total of 14. He carried a .294 batting average, picked up 53 RBI, and 69 hits.
The junior first baseman played a major role in the postseason for Ole Miss. His last home run of the year came in the Super-Regional against Louisiana-Lafayette, which helped the Rebels advance to Omaha. He would also make key offensive plays in the College World Series to help Ole Miss advance deep into the tournament.
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led the Ole Miss Rebels in RBI, with 64 on the season. He also held the highest batting average in the starting rotation, averaging .339 at the plate on the year. Allen picked up 94 hits and 7 home runs off of 277 at bats this season.
Allen was the hero for Ole Miss in the 2014 College World Series. He would pick up three RBI in clutch situations to help the Rebels beat TCU, which led Ole Miss to the final four in Omaha. Allen would also be named one of three 2014 Johnny Bench Award finalists, which is awarded to the nation’s top collegiate catcher.
We at Ole Hotty Toddy are proud of all these players. They accomplished so much this season. There is more to come in our recaps of the 2014 Ole Miss Baseball Season.