Ole Miss Baseball: Observations From No.9 Rebels Opening Weekend

It’s always nice to look back on a solid opening weekend series for Ole Miss baseball and see what resulted in the series sweep over Winthrop.

The Ole Miss baseball team put in a solid opening weekend performance. As expected the pitching proved to be the strength. One simple fact indicates how strong ALL of the pitching was over the weekend. That would be 1 earned run given up all weekend. Ryan Rolison and Brady Feigl put in particularly impressive starts. Jordan Fowler also deserves special mention. The freshman looks like a good candidate to be the primary left-handed relief pitcher going forward. Of course, we knew Mike Bianco would have a good pitching staff.

While there were few questions answered definitively in the first weekend, the diversity of options the team has were clear. It looks like it will take time to clear up the messy 2nd base and 3rd base situation. However, there are 3 good options at both positions. And it might turn out that multiple options will be used throughout the season.

Three players played second base for an entire game. Anthony Servideo, Jacob Adams and even Ryan Olenek are all solid options. As long as their defense stays solid it might come down to which option provides the most offense. And that could include one of the incoming or second year outfielders proving their value on offense.

It looks like as the season begins the two primary options at 3rd base are Tim Elko and Tyler Keenan. The other positions look set at least to start the season. As always, it is possible there will be some surprises. Both were solid during the first weekend.

Hitting: The Good and The Bad

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The big questions marks will be in the batting order and the starting line up in the field. This weekend provided some indication that the hitting from second year players may be much improved from last year. Grae Kessinger hit over .300 for the weekend including the game winner on Sunday. He hit in each game.

Thomas Dillard managed a .300 hitting weekend on the back of a 3 for 4 opening night performance. Cole Zabowski and Chase Cockrell both made a case for more plate appearances with their lone appearances on Saturday.

The newcomers also made a case that they could be contributors. The one negative with regard to hitting was Sundays game. This is probably splitting hairs and meaningless but the hitting did appear a lot like last year on Sunday. Of course, there will always be days like that in any season and it is also possible that we ran into a very good pitching performance on the day. This isn’t a real reason for concern at this point. However, this does bear watching in the future.

Defense

There were too many errors during the first weekend. Of course, the key there is it being the first weekend. A little rust is probably not unusual. Like Sundays hitting, this is something to keep an eye on going forward.

Grae Kessinger at short stop and Cooper Johnson at catcher should both be solid. With the options at 2nd and 3rd these positions should also be expected to produce positive results. The offense is veteran and should also be solid defensively.

Question Marks With Pitching

Fortunately, the questions about pitching are all related to what to do with the wealth of talent that is available. Other than a little shakiness from Sundays starter all of the pitching was somewhere between solid and outstanding. And even the shakiness from James McArthur was offset by his ability to escape without damage.

Jordan Fowler pitching two solid innings was one of the most encouraging things with the pitching staff. If he can fill the role of a solid left-hander out of the bullpen this staff has extremely high potential. The potential could possibly be even greater than everyone has been expecting.

Next: Season Predictions!

Overall Outlook

This is a Ole Miss baseball team which could make a lot of noise in the SEC and beyond. The early part of the season will be key in answering some questions and developing roles as the schedule gets tougher in March. Hopefully, over the next 5 games some of the rust will be worked out while at least some progress can be made with regard to the outstanding questions.