The University of Mississippi Athletics
Pomeranz Makes Eight: Rebel Presence Growing In Major Leagues
9/16/2011 | Baseball
Sept. 16, 2011
OXFORD, Miss. - Drew Pomeranz took the mound and toed the rubber on Sunday, Sept. 11, just like Rebel fans have seen the big left-handed hurler do many times before - with a cool and calm demeanor of a man going about his business.
It was just another normal day in the life of a 22 year old, right?
But that calm exterior belied the butterflies that were fluttering in the stomach of the 6-5 pitcher who was making his Major League debut barely a year after finishing his collegiate career at Ole Miss.
Pomeranz - who was on a pitch count - needed only 63 pitches to make it through 5.0 scoreless innings of work against the Cincinnati Reds. He allowed only two hits and struck out two, including the first batter faced, on the way to picking up the win as the Rockies downed the Reds 4-1.
In true Pomeranz form, the Collierville, Tenn., native casually brushed aside what he'd accomplished as just doing what was asked of him.
"I could have told you guys before I went out there that `I'm going to dominate,'" Pomeranz told reporters after the game. "But it wouldn't have mattered if I got shelled and didn't last two innings."
Pomeranz did dominate, however. And he did it all after most expected he wouldn't get a chance at a debut this season due to an emergency appendectomy only three weeks prior.
The fact that Pomeranz returned so quickly - and in such dominant fashion - probably came with little surprise for Rebel fans who remember another dominant performance from the pitcher in the 2009 NCAA Regionals. On June 2, 2009, the left-hander took the mound on two days rest for the Championship game of the Regional and worked a complete-game with 16 strikeouts to help his squad advance to an NCAA Super Regional.
What might surprise some is that Pomeranz, who was named the SEC Pitcher of the Year in 2010, made it look so easy on such a big stage in his debut. It also might surprise casual observers if it was pointed out that Pomeranz wasn't the only former Ole Miss player on the field that day.
Seth Smith also took the field for the Rockies that day - a day that saw four Rebels take the field for Major League teams - and in a year when Ole Miss' presence in professional baseball's highest tier has been at its greatest.
All told, eight former Rebels have taken the field for Major League squads this season. That number is the second most of any SEC team (LSU has nine players in the Major Leagues this season) and includes three Rebels who made their debut this summer.
Pomeranz is the most recent Ole Miss alum to make his debut in 2011, joining right-hander Lance Lynn and shortstop Zack Cozart as players called up to the big leagues this year. Lynn made his debut with St. Louis on June 2, while Cozart got the call up and took the field for the Reds on July 7.
The trio added to the total number of MLB Rebels that sat at five prior to June. Chris Coghlan (Florida), Matt Maloney (Cincinnati), Alex Presley (Pittsburgh), the Rockies' Smith and Matt Tolbert (Minnesota) already found themselves on MLB rosters and have seen action in 2011.
Of the eight, three currently sit on the disabled list due to injury. Both Maloney and Cozart are sidelined for the Reds, while Coghlan - who was named the 2009 National League Rookie of the Year - is coming back from the disabled list for the Florida Marlins.
But despite those recent injuries, it's been an exciting time for Rebel fans and possibly even more exciting for this group of players. Many of them played together at Ole Miss and continue to find themselves crossing paths in the Major Leagues.
Four of the eight are in the National League's Central Division. Cozart and Maloney are teammates with the Cincinnati Reds. Three of those four played together on the 2005 team (Cozart, Maloney, Presley) while the fourth (Lance Lynn with St. Louis) was a member of the 2006 Rebel squad with Cozart and Presley.
"It's pretty cool that this group of guys played together and now we've come up through the professional ranks together," said Alex Presley. "But this is a whole different level. To have so many guys in the same division is pretty cool. There are familiar faces on the field, now it's just on the other side of things."
For much of the season, those players have been on squads locked in a four-way battle for the Central Division pennant until recently when Milwaukee has surged to the forefront of the Division as the regular season winds down. St. Louis sits 5.5 games behind the Brewers heading into the weekend.
"I don't really get to call much, but we do sometimes text and things like that," Presley said. "We're all relatively new to this, so I don't know how much we really know to share with each other at this point. It's nice to know that there are people I can reach out to if I need to, and we can hang out and catch up when we're in the same city.
"It's awesome to have so many guys from the same era up in the Majors right now," Presley continued. "I wish all of us who have gone on could get this experience, but it's great to see someone you were close with in college and shared that experience with get to make it at this level."
That closeness developed during the collegiate years is something Presley says is still important despite having moved on to the next level of the sport. He points to the time spent traveling across the Southeast to play in what is arguably college baseball's most demanding league as one of the best of his life.
"The college experience is something I'm really appreciative of; you spend three years with those guys and have a closer bond with so many of them. In the professional ranks people come and go so often, but in college you're together so much. Those guys are people you keep up with over the years and that's a bond that stays with you for as long as you play."
