Baseball Welcomes North Alabama for Kids Day at Swayze

			#18 OLE MISS (20-9, 5-4 SEC) vs. NORTH ALABAMA (5-21, 1-5 A-SUN) April 2, 2019 Oxford, Miss. Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field (11,477)
Ole Miss Notes • North Alabama Notes • SEC Notes

Tuesday, April 2
11 a.m.

PROJECTED STARTERS
Ole Miss: RHP Max Cioffi
1-0, 3.86 ERA, 24 K, 7 BB
North Alabama: RHP Colin Chamblin
1-3, 6.26 ERA, 17 K, 11 BB

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LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss enters the week coming off an SEC road series win over Arkansas. The Rebels dropped Game 1 in Fayetteville but came back with wins on Saturday and Sunday, culminating with a dominant 10-5 victory in Game 3. The Rebels scored 10 runs on 14 hits, while Tyler Myers threw four scoreless inn. to seal the victory.
• Tuesday will be Kids Day at Swayze Field, as well as Financial Literacy Education Day, presented by Renasant Bank.
• Tyler Keenan is No. 4 in the nation and first in the SEC with 43 RBI on the season.
• Max Cioffi will make his first career start Tuesday. He has made seven appearances out of the bullpen this season, including four scoreless outings.
• Ole Miss had six players hit over .300 last week, including two over .400.
• Tyler Myers has thrown 10 straight scoreless innings, including four on Sunday at Arkansas to earn his first career save. He also earned his first career win Tuesday at Memphis.
• Parker Caracci has thrown 6.2 straight scoreless innings with five consecutive successful save opportunities. He has allowed just four hits while striking out 12 and walking just one in that span.
• Ole Miss ranks in the top five in the SEC in on-base percentage (2nd), batting average (4th), slugging percentage (5th), runs scored (3rd), hits (4th), RBI (3rd), walks (2nd), HBP (1st) and stolen bases (3rd).
• The Rebels have struck out the third-fewest times in the conference.
• Ole Miss has the third-best stolen base percentage in the conference (85.5%). They're the only team in the SEC with a stolen-base percentage higher than 85 percent in more than 60 attempts.

Financial Literacy Education Day Game Presented by Renasant
Renasant (NASDAQ: RNST) will host a Financial Literacy Education Kid's Day Game with Ole Miss Baseball on Tuesday, April 2, 2019. The Ole Miss Rebels will be playing the North Alabama Lions at 11 AM at Swayze Field in Oxford, MS. Lucius Brock, Division President for the Oxford Market, will be throwing the first pitch of the game.

"This is the 7th year for Ole Miss Baseball to host a Kid's Day, but this is the first year Renasant will join them as the Financial Literacy Game Day sponsor. We're excited about the partnership and expect about 6,000 students, grades 1-12, from North Mississippi schools," said Brock. "Each student in attendance will receive a financial literacy workbook courtesy of Renasant Bank."

Earlier this year, Renasant hosted a Financial Literacy Education Day with the Memphis Hustle at the Landers Center with great success of more than 4,000 students in attendance from schools in Shelby and Desoto Counties.

"Kid's Day games at Ole Miss sporting events have grown into annual traditions for schools across the middle and northern parts of the state. Adding Renasant Bank to the day and giving thousands of kids an opportunity to learn financial literacy in a fun way, tied to Rebel Athletics, only adds to an already great experience," said Jason List, Associate Ole Miss Athletics Director for Marketing and Fan Experience.

ABOUT RENASANT CORPORATION: Renasant Corporation, a 115-year-old financial services institution, is the parent of Renasant Bank. Renasant has assets of approximately $12.9 billion and operates more than 190 banking, mortgage, financial services and insurance offices throughout Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Renasant was named the "Best Bank in the South" by Time Magazine's Money.com for 2018-19.

For more information please visit www.renasantbank.com or Renasant's IR site at www.renasant.com.

SEE YOU AT SWAYZE

In 2018, Ole Miss was No. 2 in the nation in both total and average attendance for the fourth consecutive season. Swayze Field attracted 8,965 fans per game and a total of 322,742 fans over 36 games.

The season included five of the top 10 most-attended games in program history, including the single-game attendance record of 12,152 in the series-deciding game against LSU on April 28, 2018, which Ole Miss won, 9-8. Rebel Nation also set the single-game postseason attendance record in the opening game of the NCAA Oxford Regional as Ole Miss topped Saint Louis, 9-2.

Going into 2019, Ole Miss broke its program record for season ticket sales. The previous program-high was 6,275 for the 2017 season. At the start of the 2019 campaign, the season ticket sales figure eclipsed 7,000 for the first time in history. The Rebels were second in the nation in opening-day attendance in 2019 (8,832), behind only LSU.

This season is the 30th anniversary of Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field, which opened February 19, 1989. Prior to the construction of the current facility, the Rebels played at Old Swayze Field, which stood where The Pavilion at Ole Miss currently stands.

CLOSE DEFEATS

All of the Rebels' nine losses have come by four runs or fewer, and eight have come by three runs or fewer.

MENTIONABLE HONORS

Ole Miss earned four preseason All-SEC honors, the most in Rebel baseball history and tied for the most in the conference this season. Six of the Rebels' starting nine offensive players carry either 2019 preseason or 2018 postseason honors into the start of the season.

Preseason All-American
Parker Caracci - 1st Team (Perfect Game); 2nd Team (D1Baseball, NCBWA, Collegiate Baseball); 3rd Team (Baseball America)
Thomas Dillard - 2nd Team (D1Baseball)
Ryan Olenek - 3rd Team (Collegiate Baseball)

Preseason All-SEC
1B Cole Zabowski - First Team
RHP Parker Caracci - Second Team
IF/OF/DH Chase Cockrell - Second Team
3B Tyler Keenan - Second Team

2019 Weekly Honors
Thomas Dillard - SEC Player of the Week (Week 2), Golden Spikes Award Performance of the Week (Week 2), NCBWA National Hitter of the Week (Week 2), Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week (Week 2)
Ryan Olenek - Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week (Week 3)

OLE MISS VS. UNA

Ole Miss and North Alabama will play for the 10th time Tuesday. The Rebels hold an 8-1 lead in the all-time series, with the last meeting coming as a 7-6 Rebel win in 1992. North Alabama's lone win in the series came the year prior, when the Lions topped the Rebels 8-6 in 1991.

STARTING OFF

Ole Miss must replace its entire weekend starting rotation as Ryan Rolison (1st Round), Brady Feigl (5th Round) and James McArthur (12th Round) were all selected in the 2018 MLB Draft.

GOOD WILL PITCHING

Will Ethridge earned the Friday night role after posting the team's best ERA over the offseason. The junior out of Lilburn, Georgia, posted a minuscule 0.60 ERA in the fall with 18 strikeouts compared to four walks (4.50 K/BB). He kept it going in the spring, holding opposing hitters to two runs over 11 innings for a 1.67 ERA.

Ethridge missed his second start of the season at Tulane with a blister, but aside from that hiccup, he has been every bit of the Friday night ace the Rebels hoped for. His 0.71 ERA would rank fourth in the SEC and 10th in the nation, but he is 2.1 innings shy of the NCAA ranking minimum of 1.0 IP/game.

Ethridge was phenomenal in his first SEC start of the season, going 6.0 scoreless, scattering three hits with nine strikeouts to earn the win in a 1-0 victory over Alabama.

NIKHAZY FLIRTS WITH NO-NO

Freshman lefty Doug Nikhazy has moved into the Saturday night role and didn't disappoint in his first weekend start and first SEC start. Nikhazy took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and exited after 7.2, having allowed no runs on two hits. Parker Caracci closed out the win, and the two combined a two-hit shutout.

Nikhazy became the first Rebel freshman to start a shutout in SEC play since Drew Pomeranz on April 5, 2008, against Vanderbilt.

Prior to his SEC starting debut, Nikhazy was called upon for two tough midweek starts against ranked opponents, No. 14 ECU and No. 7 Louisville. In those starts, Nikhazy allowed three runs in each game, yielding four hits against ECU and five against Louisville, going a total of 11 innings between the two starts, striking out 12. In six relief appearances, Nikhazy has allowed only two runs over 6.1 innings.

FAB FRESHMAN

The final starting role was taken by highly touted freshman Gunnar Hoglund. Hoglund was drafted in the first round of the 2018 MLB Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates but elected to come to Oxford. The rookie out of Hudson, Florida, has lived up to his billing thus far. His fall ERA was second only to Ethridge at 1.23 over 14.2 innings of work. He was outstanding in the spring as well, posting a 6.0 strikeout-to-walk ratio, going 8.2 innings without issuing a free pass. Before his final start of the spring, he allowed just two earned runs.

CLOSING TIME

Parker Caracci had a breakout 2018 season that ended in All-America honors and a selection in the 37th round of the MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. However, Caracci elected to return for his redshirt-junior campaign, and he has worked his way back to top form going into the season. Caracci pitched for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team over the summer, posting a perfect 0.00 ERA with two saves and an opposing batting average of .094 in 9.2 innings of work. Heading into the season, Caracci is a first-team All-American according to Perfect Game, in addition to four other All-America nods. He's also All-SEC Second Team and is on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award Watch List.

Caracci threw the final 1.1 innings of a two-hit shutout, retiring four Missouri hitters in order with three strikeouts to earn his fourth save of the season. Caracci has gone five straight outings without allowing a run, walking one and giving up just four hits while striking out 12 in that span.

SWAYZE SHOWER SEASON

With 34 home runs on the season, Ole Miss ranks 13th nationally and 2nd in the SEC. The Rebels are averaging 1.17 home runs per game, good for 17th in the nation and second in the conference.

REBS ARE RUNNIN'

Ole Miss is No. 9 in the nation and No. 3 in the SEC with 230 runs scored on the season. The Rebels are averaging 8.2 runs per game, good for 15th nationally and third in the conference.

CROOKED NUMBERS

Ole Miss has scored 3 or more runs in an inning 32 times this season. The Rebels have had 13 three-run innings, 7 four-run innings, 6 five-run innings, 2 six-run innings, 2 seven-run innings, one eight-run inning and one nine-run inning.

DOUBLE DIGITS

Ole Miss scored in double figures 11 times this season, including a season-high of 25 against UAPB. The Rebels have reached double figures in hits 14 times, including a season high of 21 against UAPB.

DILLY DILLY!

Thomas Dillard's incredible start to the 2019 season has drawn some major national recognition. He ranks in the top 50 nationally in home runs (17th), walks (20th), home runs per game (28th), walks per game (47th).

Dillard's Week 2 Honors
• SEC Player of the Week
• Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week
• NCBWA National Hitter of the Week
• Golden Spikes Award Performance of the Week

OLEY ON FIRE

Ryan Olenek picked up where he left off after hitting .350 and earning All-SEC First Team honors in 2018. In addition to being named a Preseason All-American by Collegiate Baseball, in Week 3 of 2019, Olenek was named a National Player of the Week by the Publication.

Olenek has hits in 25 of 29 games this season. Adding nine doubles already this season, Oley has 49 doubles in his Rebel career is two away from tying David Dellucci and Burney Hutchinson for fifth in Rebel history.

OK, TK

Tyler Keenan had a tremendous rookie campaign, earning Freshman All-American honors, as well as an All-SEC Second Team nod going into 2019—and he has shown no signs of a sophomore slump.

Keenan is No. 4 in the nation and No. 1 in the SEC in RBI with 43 on the year. His 1.50 RBI/game average is also first in the conference and is sixth nationally.

CATCHER U

Junior Cooper Johnson is off to an excellent start to 2019 and is poised to be the next in a line of prolific catchers to play for head coach Mike Bianco. Johnson has just one passed ball through 26 games and has erased 10 would-be base stealers.

BIG GAME GRAE

Junior Grae Kessinger has been on fire since the start of SEC play. He has hits in 10 of 12 games since league play started and has reached base in 17 straight games. Kessinger had mutliple hits in every game last week, giving him a team-high 11 on the season. He hit .421 last week with eight hits and five runs scored.

Kessinger's biggest moment of the season thus far came in the ninth inning of Game 2 at Arkansas, when he delivered the go-ahead RBI on a double off the wall to give the Rebels a 4-3 win.

RebelsCalendar

Players Mentioned

Parker Caracci

Max Cioffi

Chase Cockrell

Thomas Dillard

Will Ethridge

Brady Feigl

Gunnar Hoglund

Cooper Johnson

Tyler Keenan

Grae Kessinger

James McArthur

Tyler Myers

Doug Nikhazy

Ryan Olenek

Ryan Rolison

Cole Zabowski

The University of Mississippi Athletics