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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Head To Virginia For 8th Straight NCAA Regional
5/31/2010 | Baseball
The 22nd-ranked Rebels are a two seed in the Charlottesville Regional while St. John's is the three seed. Also competing in the regional are host Virginia (47-11), who claimed the ACC regular season title and fourth-seeded Virginia Commonwealth (34-24-1), winners of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament.
"We know we were going somewhere, so today has been a little bit of finality and allows us to start focusing on playing," said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. "We're going to start Drew Pomeranz because we need to win and aren't in a position to do a lot of things [with the rotation] and we have a lot of confidence in Aaron Barrett as our number two pitcher. To have an advantage you have to win the first two games.
"St. John's is obviously a team that is playing well after claiming the Big East Tournament and beat a national seed in Louisville on the way to that tournament title. They are a very offensive team and to not start your ace against them would be a mistake."
Ole Miss is coming off a run to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament that saw the Rebels defeat a pair of top 15 teams on the way with a 3-0 victory over No. 7 South Carolina in the tournament opener and a 10-7 win over No. 13 Auburn in an extra-inning game in the quarterfinals. The Rebels two losses in the tournament came to Alabama and LSU - the two teams who faced off in the Championship Game on Sunday.
It marked the fifth time in the last six years the Rebels advanced to at least the semifinals of the SEC Tournament. Ole Miss played in the Tournament Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2008 and claimed the SEC Tournament title in 2006.
Ole Miss and St. John's have never faced each other in the history of the two programs, nor have the Rebels played Virginia Commonwealth.
Ole Miss and Virginia faced each other last season in the NCAA Super Regional in Oxford with the Cavaliers winning the series twogames to one to advance to the College World Series.
St. John's claimed the Big East Tournament title this past weekend, pushing through the tournament field with wins over South Florida, a pair of wins over Louisville and defeated Connecticut in the Championship game.
The Red Storm is hitting .327 as a team and is led at the plate by freshman outfielder Jeremy Blatz who is batting at a .393 clip with 20 home runs and 74 RBI on the season. The pitching staff for St. John's is holding to a 5.05 ERA and have posted 425 strikeouts to go along with 296 walks on the year. The staff is led by 6-7 right-hander Kyle Hansen who holds an 8-1 record and a 3.09 ERA. He has struck out 81 and walked 36 while allowing 30 earned runs in 87.1 innings of work.
