The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Baseball Hosts UAB for Midweek Doubleheader
3/23/2015 | Baseball
MIDWEEK SERIES
Matchup: Ole Miss (13-10) vs. UAB (12-9)
Date: March 24, 2015
Location: Oxford, Miss.
Venue: Swayze Field
Capacity: 10,323
Television: SEC Network+
Will Kollmeyer, play-by-play
David Dellucci, analyst
Radio: Ole Miss Radio Network
David Kellum, play-by-play
Keith Kessinger, analyst
Live Audio: OleMissSports.com
Series: Ole Miss leads 11-9
Last Game: March 2, 1999
UAB won 20-15
Birmingham, Ala.
QUICK HITS
- Ole Miss will wrap up a six-game homestand with two seven-inning games against UAB Tuesday, March 24
- Both games will be broadcast on SEC Network+
- The Rebels are currently 3-1 during the homestand and 10-3 overall at Swayze Field this year
- The doubleheader with UAB will be the sixth doubleheader of the season for Ole Miss
- Ole Miss finished a stretch of nine games in which eight contests were against top 10 teams, including six versus teams ranked No. 1; the Rebels went 5-4 during that span
- The series victory over No. 1 Florida gave Ole Miss a 4-0 series record over the past seven seasons when facing the top-ranked team at Swayze Field
- In his five SEC games, senior Sikes Orvis is hitting .421 with three doubles, two home runs and nine RBI, all team highs.
- Ole Miss ranks third in the nation in attendance in 2015, bringing in an average of 7,457 fans for a total attendance of 96,945
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Tuesday Game One, 11:00 A.M.
UAB - Dylan Munger, R-So., LHP, 0-0, 0.00 ERA
Ole Miss - Sam Smith, Sr., RHP, 1-3, 7.30 ERA
NOTING SMITH:
- Has made six starts this season as well as two relief appearances
- Is the most experienced starting pitcher in the SEC, making 48 career starts on the mound
- Last outing, gave up one run on three hits in 2.1 innings of relief versus No. 1 Florida
- Allowed two runs on four hits over 5.1 innings against No. 15 UCF
Tuesday Game Two
UAB - TBA
Ole Miss - Evan Anderson, So., LHP, 1-2, 6.29 ERA
NOTING ANDERSON:
- Has pitched in seven games this season, including four midweeks starts
- Played first base for two innings against No. 1 Florida, while also drawing the second at-bat of his career
- Picked up the win versus Arkansas State, allowing just one run on two hits over five innings of work
- Made a relief appearance in the season opener, lasting 1.1 innings and recording four strikeouts
A LOOK AT UAB
Sticking to the season trend, the Rebels face another team with a winning record. UAB started out 8-1 before cooling off a bit, but still are 12-9 this season after earning a Conference USA series victory against Marshall over the weekend. Earlier in the week, UAB fell to Auburn, 6-4, in its only matchup against a SEC team so far in 2015. The Blazers are led by junior Evan Peterson, who is hitting .327 at the dish. Peterson is the former teammate of Ole Miss junior college transfer Connor Cloyd as the two played together at Tacoma Community College. Senior Jeff Schalk boasts team bests in hits (22) and RBI (13) to go along with is .275 average. On the mound, redshirt-sophomore Dylan Munger is expected to start game one for the Blazers. It will be Munger's return to the hill after he sat out the entire 2014 season due to injury.
LET'S PLAY TWO
Through the first six weeks of the season, although not originally scheduled, Ole Miss has played a doubleheader on five of those six weekends. The Rebels are 6-4 in on doubleheader days, winning the second tests all four times. Over the weekend, Ole Miss split a twinbill against No. 1 Florida, winning the first contest to clinch the series. Tomorrow's doubleheader versus UAB will be the sixth doubleheader of the season for Ole Miss. Playing so many doubleheaders is not familiar territory for the Rebels; the last time Ole Miss played at least six doubleheaders in one full season occurred in 1993 when the Rebels played eight twinbills throughout the year.
GOLSAN NAMED SEC FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Freshman Will Golsan was named SEC Freshman of the Week, the conference office announced Monday, March 23. The honor is the first for Golsan in his young Ole Miss career as well as the Rebels' first weekly accolade of the 2015 season. Golsan led Ole Miss with a .389 average at the plate this past week. He recorded three multi-hit games throughout the week and scored a team-high four runs as the Rebels went 3-1, including taking 2-of-3 from No. 1 Florida. Golsan started the week by helping spark a ninth-inning rally before scoring the game-winning run against UAPB, March 18. In the two victories over the top-ranked Gators, the Columbus, Miss. native went a combined 5-for-9 at the dish. Golsan also recorded the first two steals of his career during the week. The freshman has worked his way into the lineup, moving from DH to the starter at third base over the past six games. Golsan is now tied for the team lead in batting average this season, hitting at a .300 clip and an even better .333 average during SEC play.
WEATHERING THE STORM
One of two captains, senior Scott Weathersby has been a leader to a youthful Ole Miss baseball team. On the mound this season, Weathersby has posted a 2.16 ERA in seven appearances. Through 16.2 innings of work, he has struck out 19 batters, while only walking three. Perhaps the most impressive statistic of all by the Hattiesburg, Miss. native is that he is holding opposing hitters to just a .111 average at the plate. Weathersby's veteran presence on the mound showed against No. 1 Florida Friday night, March 20, as he retired each of the eight batters he faced, stranding the inherited runner in the seventh and working a perfect eighth and ninth to earn his second save of the season.
PACKING A 1-2 PUNCH
Junior Christian Trent and sophomore Brady Bramlett have been a dynamic duo on the mound throughout the Rebels' first six weekend series. They have both made five quality starts out of six starts this season. The pair of Rebels are a combined 7-2 this season; Trent is 4-1 with a 3.11 ERA, while Bramlett posts an impressive 1.54 ERA to go along with his 3-1 record. Only 19 earned runs have been surrendered over 72.2 innings between the two starting pitchers. Trent retired the first eight batters he faced and went 4.1 innings before allowing his first hit in a win over Florida; he allowed just one run on three hits with a walk and three strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work. Bramlett followed his teammate's outing by going six innings strong and giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts to also collect a victory. Through his first two career SEC starts, both against a top-ranked team, Bramlett has allowed just two earned runs in 13.0 innings of work. He also has 42 strikeouts on the season, compared to just six walks, in 35 innings of work.
SIKES VS. THE SEC
Senior Sikes Orvis, named to Preseason All-SEC, has lived up to the expectations through the first two weekends of conference action. Orvis delivered the game-tying and game-winning doubles against LSU in a 14-inning thriller before blasting a 431-foot home run in the series finale. The Orlando, Fla. native continued his tear at the plate on Saturday in game one versus No. 1 Florida, going 2-for-2 with a double, home run and four RBI. Through the first two weekends of SEC play, Orvis is hitting .421 with three doubles, two home runs and nine RBI, all team highs. Out of six games, Orvis has seen action in four complete games as well as just three innings in another.
PROTECTING SWAYZE AGAINST THE BEST
Swayze Field has proven over the years to be a tough place to play for some of the nation's top teams, and No. 1 Florida became the latest team to experience the difficulty of facing the Rebels on their home turf. Ole Miss won the first two games against the Gators to clinch the series, improving to 4-0 in home series against No. 1 teams over the past seven seasons. The stretch also included series wins over No. 1 Georgia in 2009, No. 1 South Carolina in 2011 and No. 1 Florida in 2012. With the most recent series win, Ole Miss has won 12 of its last 18 home series against top-10 teams, dating back to 2003.
THE GAUNTLET
The Rebels have gone through the gauntlet thus far with a difficult non-conference schedule as well as facing two teams ranked No. 1 to begin SEC play. According to D1Baseball.com, Ole Miss has had the nation's toughest schedule to this point, and it's hard to argue that. Through 23 games, 11 of those contests came against top-15 teams, including six against No. 1 teams. The Rebels are 5-6 in games against ranked teams, but most recently took two-of-three from No. 1 Florida. Ole Miss has played eight of its last nine games against teams ranked in the top 10, posted an even 4-4 record in those matchups. The brutal schedule to start the season has made a young Ole Miss team grow up fast, and the Rebels could benefit from the pressure as the season rolls along.
DISHON DOING HIS JOB
Coming off the bench primarily as a pinch runner during the 2014 season, junior Cameron Dishon has comfortably filled his new role as the Diamond Rebels' starting right fielder. Still aggressive on the base path, Dishon is tied for the team lead in steals with seven swipes, while he's third on the team with a batting average of .286, bolstering the bottom of the Ole Miss lineup. The Beaumont, Texas native has also stepped up for his club when called upon to advance the runner; Dishon is second in the SEC with six sacrifice bunts, a number that also ranks 26th in the nation. In the Rebels' series against No. 8 Louisville, Dishon led Ole Miss at the plate, going 4-for-9 with two runs and one RBI. The successful series included the first home run of his career on a solo blast to left field. Dishon was busy in the field during the victory over the Cardinals, catching nine flyballs to account for one-third of Louisville's outs. This season, he has made 53 putouts without an error in right field, the only Rebel in the everyday lineup that has not had a miscue.
OFF TO ARKANSAS
The Rebels will have one day off before returning to the diamond to face Arkansas in their third SEC series of the season. The three-game set will begin on Thursday, March 26 in Fayetteville and can be seen on ESPNU beginning at 6:30 p.m. CT. Game two will take place Friday night at 6:00 p.m. CT on SEC Network before the series concludes on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. CT.
