That was not fun at all—a much different tune than in the opener against Arizona. Not only did basketball lay an egg on Saturday afternoon against State in front of a packed home court, but Ole Miss failed to launch in a run-rule loss to the Longhorns.
Riley Maddox looked incredible through the first three innings. His fastball was running up to 95 and his sinker and slider seemed to have some extra bite. He struck out the side in the first inning and again in the third to put 6 Ks and hold Texas scoreless through three. That is where the fun ended.
The fourth inning pretty much ended this one. Maddox got battered around for a few hits, but a couple of Ole Miss defensive miscues, a hallmark of last year's team, didn't help out. I think Texas has one of the most talented and complete lineups in the country, and they were always going to get some production in this one. With Maddox struggling to find an answer, Mangrum turned to the bullpen, calling on junior Sam Tookoian.
He was downright awful. The once-promising freshman has continued regressing into his third season at Ole Miss. He threw just 19 pitches, only 6 for strikes. He walked three, allowed a hit, and three runs came across to score before it was back to the bullpen for freshman Walker Hooks.
This was the bright spot for the Rebs yesterday. Hooks looks really good and was as advertised. In two and 2/3 innings, Hooks did not allow a single baseruner and struck out four. In a game like this, it is important to try to take something away and think that we discovered that the freshman will be just fine this year in big spots. Landon Waters would make his Rebel debut next, but he didn't inspire much confidence, allowing three earn while only recording one out and leading to the run rule.
The more pressing issue is the offense, which mustered just two hits in the game. The Rebels made Texas starter LHP Luke Harrison look like the next coming of Cy Young. This is a continuation of a lack of offensive production against Arizona, which was pretty nonexistent outside of Hill, Humphrey, and Moerman. Moerman was one of the only Rebels to record a hit on Saturday. Multiple Rebels, Smithwick, Sandord, Furniss (who has looked particularly lost at the plate), and Paino are all still looking for their first hits.
Two things made no sense to me. First, Bianco continues to make some odd decisions in his lineup selection. The Rebels are lefty-heavy, which was not a good matchup for Harrison, who performs much better against left-handed hitters. However, Bianco loaded up on them instead of playing Luke Cheng at SS or Colin Reuter at DH. He also stacked up four lefties in a row. Worse was the Ole Miss hitters' approach, which was to swing at everything. The number of first-pitch pop-ups or rollovers was insane, and Harrison cruised into the 7th inning with only 60 odd pitches thrown.
The Rebels will have to get going at the plate, or they won't win much. Luckily, they will have another big opportunity today at 2:30 Central as they take on the 8th-ranked Clemson Tigers. The Tigers are coming off a demolishing 16-5 win over Arizona.
The Rebels will hand the ball to veteran righty Mason Nichols in an attempt to slow down the Clemson offense, which is off to a hot start this season. We still await the Clemson starter, but as I mentioned, Clemson is in search of one, which could be a good recipe for the Rebs to gain some confidence on offense.