The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Opens "Fall Ball" With Structured Scrimmage On Monday
9/19/2005 | Baseball
Sept. 19, 2005
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss baseball team officially began preparations for the 2006 season on Monday as the Rebels went through the first scrimmage of the "fall ball" season at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field.
The Rebels worked out for the coaching staff and a crowd of about 30 spectators, most of whom were professional scouts in attendance for Scout Day.
Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco was pleased with what he saw on the first day of action, as the squad went through a structured scrimmage to get the squad on the field and working toward opening day.
"It was nice to get back on the field again," Bianco said. "Some guys played well and some pitchers pitched well. You expect the pitchers to be ahead of the batters at this point of the season, but the hitters held there own and some guys got some good, hard hits."
Bianco pointed to two newcomers and three returning players from the pitching staff as examples of players who stood out on the mound on Monday. New faces Nick Hetland and Garrett White caught the eye of the head coach along with returning pitchers Tommy Baumgardner, Jon-Jon Hancock and Will Kline.
Among the batters, third baseman Chris Coghlan stood out in the mind of the Rebel head coach.
"Chris Coghlan really picked up where he left off this summer (after playing in summer leagues)," Bianco said. "He had two nice, hard hit balls."
Ole Miss will continue fall practices over the course of the next several weeks as Bianco and the Rebel coaching staff work on sizing up the talent on the roster and implementing the philosophy for the upcoming season.
"This is a valuable time for us to get our system in place and evaluate the new players on the team," Bianco said. "It's also a chance for us to evaluate the returning players and see how they have progressed. It's a period of time for us to evaluate the players we have for the roles we need filled during the season."