Heating up? Ole Miss Baseball vs Wright State Raiders Weekend Series Preview

The Rebels are back at Swayze this weekend after picking up a massive ranked win over in-state rival Southern Miss in a slugfest midweek game. Are the Rebs getting hot?

Ole Miss will take on Wright State in a weekend series, with games at 4 PM CT on Friday and Saturday, and then they will cap things off with some day baseball on Sunday at 1:30.

The Rebels look to continue a six-game win streak and pick up back-to-back sweeps in the nonconference schedule. The Raiders out of Wright State will enter Swayze at a record of 3-3, picking up two wins against Longwood and one against Miami (OH). Wright State traveled to Auburn last weekend and took a beating at the hand of the Tiger, getting swept by a combined score of 31-5. The Rebels will look for the sweep; anything less should be considered a failure this weekend.

Ole Miss will trot out the same starting rotation that they have the first two weekends. Hunter Elliot will start on Friday, Riley Maddox will begin on Saturday, and Mason Nichols will begin on Sunday. We will also look to see a more solidification of the bullpen roles. I want to see Brayden Jones again this weekend; he has been great this year and was huge in the win over Southern Miss. I also want to see Alex Canney pitch again, as he was left out this midweek.

This weekend will also serve as another opportunity to continue to solidify this lineup. The position battle for the starting catcher slot is heating up, as Austin Fawley performed well against Southern Miss with 4 RBIs.

We will also see if Paino can kick start his career and season after his first career home run this week.

The Wright State starters have struggled so far this season. We expect to see Lefty Griffen Paige on Friday, Jarrett Heilman on Saturday, and another southpaw on Sunday in Chet Lax. The Rebels have had some slow starts, even against not-great arms, and have also struggled with left-handers this season.

Offensively, the Raiders are led by 2B Hunter Warren, who is hitting an impressive .522 average and picked up four hits last weekend in Auburn. LF JP Pelter leads the team in home runs at three and RBIs at 8. Boston Smith also packs a punch in the DH spot, which is slugging at a .619 clip.