Rebels Set To Face Mississippi State In SEC Tournament

#19 Ole Miss Rebels (35-21, 16-14 SEC) vs.
#19 Miss. State Bulldogs (33-18, 15-13)
Wednesday, May 23 8 p.m. CT (delayed until 9:35 p.m.)
Hoover, Ala. Regions Park

GAME INFORMATION:
 Television: CSS
 Radio: Locally on 105.5 WTNM-FM Supertalk Mississippi; Statewide on the Ole Miss Radio Network with David Kellum and Richard Cross, or listen online by clicking here; Air time is one hour prior to first pitch.
 Satellite Radio: No Sirius radio for this weekend games. XM Radio will carry the games.
 Internet Availability: Live Stats will be available by clicking here.
 Series History: Ole Miss trails Mississippi State in the all-time series 224-191-5, but the Rebels won
 the regular season series this year in Oxford ad have won 12 of the last 16 games against the
 Bulldogs.

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCH-UPS:
THURSDAY, 7:05 P.M.
MSU - Justin Pigott (So., LHP, 5-5, 88.1 IP, 4.69 ERA)
OM - Will Kline (Jr., RHP, 5-2, 101.0 IP, 3.92 ERA)
NOTING KLINE: Kline tied a career-high in his last outing, striking out 13 batters in 6.0 innings at Arkansas on Thursday. The 13 strikeouts moved him to 113 on the year, fourth on the single-season list. Kline took no decision in the outing, his eighth of the season.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS:
Mississippi State enters the SEC Tournament having dropped its final regular season series against Alabama. The Bulldogs have lost four of its last five SEC series to LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama with a sweep of Auburn sandwiched in between. Mississippi State is hitting .320 as a team, led by Edward Easley’s .377 batting average, including 12 home runs and 59 RBI. As a pitching staff, the Bulldogs are holding to a 4.97 ERA led by Chad Crosswhite, who boasts a 7-3 record with a 4.50 ERA in a team-leading 60.0 innings pitched.

LAST TIME OUT AGAINST THE BULLDOGS:
Ole Miss and Mississippi State have met four times already with a 2-2 record. The Bulldogs won the non-conference matchup in the Governor’s Cup, while Ole Miss took the regular season series 2-1 in Oxford. The series was capped by a 17-inning marathon in Sunday’s finale, won 4-1 by Mississippi State after Ole Miss won the first two games 17-7 and 5-1.

THROUGH 56 GAMES IN 2006:
Through 56 games a year ago, the Rebels had posted a 36-20 record, a game ahead of this year’s pace. Ole Miss was batting .307 as a team, while the pitching staff was holding to a 4.64 ERA through 494.1 innings pitched. The Rebels were 80-of-97 in steal attempts on the year. Ole Miss had hit 46 home runs on the year, one home run behind this year’s total of 47 home runs.

A LOOK AT VANDERBILT:
Vanderbilt enters the SEC Tournament as the regular-season champion and the top-ranked team in the nation. Vanderbilt is hitting .329 as a team and is led by Dominic de la Osa, who is hitting .387 on the season with 17 home runs and 53 RBI. The Commodore pitching staff holds a 3.57 ERA led by LHP David Price who has a 2.76 ERA and holds a 10-0 record with 164 strikeouts and 29 walks. Vanderbilt won the regular season series 2-1 over the Rebels.

A LOOK AT TENNESSEE:
The Volunteers enter the SEC Tournament as the eighth seeded team after taking the season-closing series at Florida. James Adkins leads a UT pitching staff with a 4.95 ERA. Adkins holds a 3.01 ERA and a 6-7 record with 128 strikeouts and 42 walks. Julio Borbon is the top hitter for a Volunteer team hitting .300 on the year. Borbon is hitting .347 with three home runs and 28 RBI. Yan Gomes is the leading power hitter with eight home runs and 45 RBI on the season.

REBEL RPI:
Ole Miss enters the weekend with an RPI among the tops in the nation. Boyd’s World, an online RPI simulator, has the Rebels ranked 14th in the nation in its index update. Warren Nolan has the Rebels at 11th as well as having the toughest schedule in the nation.

REGIONAL PROJECTIONS:

The mock regional projections of the season have come out from SEBaseball.com, and the Rebels find themselves in the projected field of 64 and hosting for the fourth straight season. Below is a look at three Regional projections for this postseason as of Sunday night.

 

SE Baseball Prediction:

1. Ole Miss*

4. Jackson State

2. Georgia Tech

3. Memphis

 

Rivals.com Prediction:

1. Ole Miss*

4. Brown

2. Southern Miss

3. Wake Forest

 

Baseball America/ESPN Prediction:

1. Ole Miss*

4. Vermont

2. Oklahoma

3. Louisiana Tech

* Denotes host school

ONE AND DONE:

The Rebels have been oh so close several times this season, coming up just short repeatedly in one-run games. Of the Rebels’ 21 losses on the year, 12 of them are by a single run. All told, the Rebels have been involved in 20 games decided by one run and posted an 8-12 record in those games. All three games of the Tennessee series were decided by one.

OUT-DOING THE COMPETITION:

Though the Rebels haven’t come out on the winning end of each series this year, the Rebels have shown the offense is alive. In seven of the 10 Southeastern Conference series, the Rebels have outhit and outscored the opponent for the weekend. Against LSU, the Rebels outscored the Tigers for the weekend series but were outhit for the first time in an SEC series. Tennessee outscored Ole Miss by one run, but the Rebels still outhit the Volunteers for the weekend. Kentucky is the only SEC opponent to outscore and outhit the Rebels for the series.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK, THE THIRD:

Ole Miss saw its third Pitcher of the Week honors from the Southeastern Conference following the final weekend of play as sophomore LHP Brett Bukvich earned the accolade. Bukvich allowed only two hits in 7.0 innings of scoreless work against the Razorbacks as he combined for a shutout in the season finale and series-clinching win.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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