The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Baseball Set To Host Auburn
4/6/2000 | Baseball
April 6, 2000
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss baseball team will open a pivotal three-game Southeastern Conference series with the Auburn Tigers Friday at 6:30 p.m., at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field. Game two of the series is Saturday at 6:30 p.m., and game three is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., on Sunday.
The Rebels enter the weekend in fourth-place in the SEC Western Division with a 5-6 conference mark. Ole Miss is 19-13 overall after a pair of midweek victories over UL Monroe and Memphis.
Auburn is 7-5 in SEC play and in third-place in the SEC West, 1 ? games ahead of Ole Miss. Overall, the Tigers are 29-8 after pounding Mercer 19-2 on Tuesday in a non-conference game.
Fourth-year Ole Miss head coach Pat Harrison is looking at this weekend as a chance for the Rebels to put themselves in good position for the stretch run in conference play.
"This is a big weekend for us," Harrison said. "We trail Auburn by 1 ? games, and we're just three games out of first place. We have a chance to gain some ground on a team that is in front of us this weekend, but we'll have to play our best."
The Tigers are the top hitting team in the conference with a .344 team batting average, and have scored a conference-high 399 runs. Auburn has four players in Todd Faulkner, Gabe Gross, Mailon Kent and Dominic Rich that rank in the top 10 in the SEC for RBI. Faulkner and Gross ranked first and second with 67 and 62, respectively, Kent is tied for sixth with 41, and Rich is tied for 10th with 37.
While Auburn's strength has been in its hitting, Ole Miss' has been in its pitching staff. The Rebels enter the weekend with a team ERA of 4.46, and have posted an ERA of 2.97 over the past 10 games.
"We're going to need to continue to pitch well," Harrison said. "We have to be aggressive with their hitters and keep runners off base so we can try and control their running game."
Senior right-hander Jeff McAvoy will get the ball in Friday's series-opener for Ole Miss. McAvoy is 5-2 with a 4.20 ERA this season, and has won 11 of his last 12 decisions at home dating back to 1998.
Freshman right-hander Brett Young, 2-0, 5.59 ERA, is scheduled to start Saturday, and senior right-hander Joey Cramblitt, 3-5, 4.66 ERA, is slated to be Sunday's starter.
Auburn will counter with freshman right-hander Levale Speigner, 0-1, 5.62 ERA, on Friday, junior right-hander Chris Bootcheck, 7-0, 2.81 ERA, on Saturday, and senior right-hander Kevin Knorst, 2-0, 4.62 ERA, on Sunday.
This weekend's series will be the final trip to Oxford for Auburn head coach Hal Baird, who announced that he's retiring at the end of the current season. Baird is in his 16th year as head coach of Tigers, and Ole Miss is planning on honoring Baird in a short ceremony prior to Friday's first pitch.
