SEC Baseball Returns to Swayze Field as No. 18 Rebels Host No. 16 Florida

			#18 OLE MISS (20-10, 5-4 SEC) vs. #16 FLORIDA (21-10, 4-5 SEC) April 5-6 Oxford, Miss. Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field (11,477)
Ole Miss Notes • Florida Notes • SEC Notes

Friday, Apr. 5 6:30 p.m.	Saturday, Apr. 6 Noon	Saturday, Apr. 6 1 Hour After Game 2
PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: RHP Will Ethridge 4-2, 1.78 ERA, 26 K, 12 BB Florida: RHP Tommy Mace 5-2, 3.42 ERA, 41 K, 13 BB	PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: LHP Doug Nikhazy 2-2, 2.88 ERA, 23 K, 9 BB Florida: TBA	PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: TBA Florida: TBA
Watch • Listen • Live Stats	Watch • Listen • Live Stats	Watch • Listen • Live Stats

SCHEDULE CHANGE
Due to inclement weather in the forecast Saturday night and Sunday, Ole Miss baseball and Florida have rescheduled to a doubleheader Saturday starting at noon.

The No. 18 Rebels and No. 16 Gators will still open their series at 6:30 p.m. CT Friday night. Saturday's Game 2 has been moved up from 7 p.m. to noon CT. Game 3 will now be played one hour after the conclusion of Game 2.

Due to the schedule change, all three games this weekend will now be streaming exclusively on SEC Network+ and the ESPN App.

TICKETING INFO
Diamond Club, Dugout Club, and Rooftop Plaza members must use their Saturday Club Ticket (Game 20) for both games. Servicing will be from 9:30-10 a.m., with all other general public gates opening at 10 a.m. Servicing in between games will not be permitted. The Diamond Club, Dugout Club, and Rooftop Plaza will not be cleared in between games.

If you wish to attend only one of the games during the doubleheader but would like to give your tickets away for the second game (or vice versa), please turn the used tickets into the Ticket Office outside of the stadium so that they may be reprinted for you or your guests and left at Will Call for pick up.

If you have a General Admission single-game ticket for Sunday only, please turn it in at the stadium ticket office to be swapped for a Saturday General Admission ticket.

If you would like to attend the 2019 Grove Bowl after attending Game 1, please bring your tickets to the Ticket Office to be reprinted for entry into Game 2.

LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss resumes SEC play coming off a 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.
• This weekend's series comes as part of Ole Miss' Grove Bowl Weekend in Oxford, featuring the three-game series between the Rebels and Gators, Saturday's Grove Bowl football spring game at 3 p.m. and several other events. The Rebels and Gators will meet for the 100th time Friday.
• Head coach Mike Bianco's next SEC win will be the 300th of his career.
• Tyler Keenan is No. 4 in the nation and first in the SEC with 43 RBI on the season.
• Six Rebels hit over .300 last week, including two over .400—Grae Kessinger (.421) and Cole Zabowski (.412)
• 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 (3rd), batting average (5th), slugging percentage (5th), runs scored (3rd), hits (4th), RBI (3rd), walks (3rd), HBP (2nd) and stolen bases (4th).
• The Rebels have struck out the third-fewest times in the conference.
• Ole Miss has the third-best stolen base percentage in the conference (86.2%).

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' 10 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)

REBELS VS. GATORS

Ole Miss and Florida will play for the 100th time Friday. The Gators currently hold a slight edge, 51-48, in the all-time series. The Rebels and Gators last met in 2017 in Gainesville, where fifth-ranked Florida swept the series. The two teams last met in Oxford in 2016, where Ole Miss took two of three from the top-ranked Gators. Ole Miss has won the last three series between the teams at Swayze Field.

SWAYZE SHOWER SEASON

With 35 home runs on the season, Ole Miss ranks 11th nationally and 2nd in the SEC. The Rebels are averaging 1.17 home runs per game, good for 18th in the nation and second in the conference.

REBS ARE RUNNIN'

Ole Miss is No. 10 in the nation and No. 3 in the SEC with 236 runs scored on the season. The Rebels are averaging 7.9 runs per game, good for 14th 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 (19th), walks (14th), home runs per game (39th) and RBI (38th).

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 30 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 44 on the year. His 1.47 RBI/game average is also first in the conference and is seventh 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.

This week, Johnson was named to the Buster Posey Award Watch List (formerly known as the Johnny Bench Award), given annually to the best catcher in college baseball.

BIG GAME GRAE

Junior Grae Kessinger has been on fire since the start of SEC play. He has hits in 11 of 13 games since league play started and has reached base in 18 straight games. Kessinger had mutliple hits in every game last week, giving him a team-high 11 multi-hit games 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.

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Players Mentioned

Parker Caracci

Chase Cockrell

Thomas Dillard

Will Ethridge

Cooper Johnson

Tyler Keenan

Grae Kessinger

Tyler Myers

Doug Nikhazy

Ryan Olenek

Cole Zabowski

The University of Mississippi Athletics