SEC Tournament Play Begins as Ole Miss Takes on Mizzou

			#21 OLE MISS (33-23, 16-14 SEC) vs. MISSOURI (34-21-1, 13-16-1 SEC) May 21 Hoover, Ala. Hoover Metropolitan Stadium (10,800)
Ole Miss Notes • Missouri Notes • SEC Notes

Tuesday, May 21
Approx. 1 p.m.

PROJECTED STARTERS
Ole Miss: RHP Will Ethridge
5-6, 3.16 ERA, 61 K, 22 BB
Missouri: RHP Konnor Ash
2-2, 4.53 ERA, 60 K, 27 BB

Watch • Listen • Live Stats

LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss returns to Hoover as the reigning SEC Tournament Champion. After opening the 2018 tournament with a defeat to Auburn, the Rebels reeled off wins over Georgia, Auburn and Texas A&M before drubbing LSU, 9-1, in the finale to win their third tournament title and ninth conference crown.
• After a 16-14 season in league play, the Rebels have now finished .500 or above in 15 of Mike Bianco's 19 seasons.
• The Rebels capped the regular season with a road win at Tennessee to snap a 6-game losing streak. Tyler Keenan homered, and starting CF Ryan Olenek took the hill to earn his first career save, tossing a perfect ninth inning to seal the 5-4 win.
• Grae Kessinger (1st Team - SS), Cooper Johnson (2nd Team, All-Defense - C) and Doug Nikhazy (All-Freshman - P) took home SEC honors, giving the Rebels four or more in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2007-08.
• Grae Kessinger and Tyler Keenan were selected as two of the five finalists for the C Spire Ferriss Trophy, given annually to the best college baseball player in Mississippi.
• Junior shortstop Grae Kessinger had his 40-game reached-base streak snapped last Tuesday. It spanned from March 8 until May 14 and was the longest by a Rebel since Tanner Mathis reached 41 times in 2011. Kessinger finished the regular season with 51 hits in SEC play, the most in the league. Kessinger was recently named a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace (Top Shortstop) Award.
• The Week 12 SEC Player of the Week, Cooper Johnson has caught 17 runners stealing, one shy of the league-high.
• Of the Rebels' 23 losses, 19 have come by 4 runs or fewer, and 17 have come by 3 runs or fewer.
• Ole Miss walked the fewest batters (93) in SEC play this season.
• Ole Miss is No. 21 in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 2.73. The Rebels are 27th nationally and third in the SEC with 3.28 walks allowed per nine innings.
• Ole Miss is No. 26 in the nation and No. 4 in the SEC with 394 runs scored on the season.
• Ole Miss has scored three or more runs in an inning 51 times this season.
• Ole Miss scored in double figures 17 times this season. The Rebels have reached double figures in hits 21 times.

BIANCO CLIMBING RECORD BOOKS

Head coach Mike Bianco began the season fifth on the all-time SEC coaching wins chart, and since, the Rebel head coach has moved to third. When Ole Miss defeated Texas A&M 13-3 on Friday, April 26, Bianco won his 739th game as the Rebel head coach, moving him to third all-time past South Carolina's Ray Tanner. On Friday, April 5, Ole Miss turned in a dominant 12-4 win over Florida to deliver Bianco's 300th win in SEC play. Ole Miss has finished at .500 or above in SEC play in 15 of Bianco's 19 seasons.

GAME OF THRONES

Ole Miss returns to Hoover as the reigning SEC Tournament Champion. The Rebels fell in their first game of the conference tournament to Auburn but reeled off five straight wins against top competition to capture the crown. The run culminated with a 9-1 drubbing of LSU in the title game. The Rebels won their third SEC Tournament title and their ninth overall conference crown. Ole Miss also secured a share of the SEC Western Division title in 2018, the 15th West championship won by the Rebels.

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. Full awards list on page 10.

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)
Doug Nikhazy - SEC Freshman of the Week (Week 8, Week 11)
Cooper Johnson - SEC Player of the Week (Week 12)

FERRISS FINALISTS

This week, Grae Kessinger and Tyler Keenan were both named finalists for the C Spire Ferriss Trophy, given annually to the top college baseball player in the state of Mississippi. Ryan Olenek was a finalist for the Rebels in 2018. Kessinger and Keenan will try to become the sixth Rebel to win the award.

REBS vs. MIZ

Ole Miss and Missouri have met 20 times in their history. The two squads are tied after a tightly contested series in Columbia earlier this season, in which Mizzou emerged the victor, two games to one. The Rebels and Tigers first met in 1958, with Mizzou taking both games. The teams have never met in the SEC Tournament.

Ole Miss and Mizzou have met in the postseason twice, both in the 2008 Coral Gables Regional. Missouri took the first meeting 7-0, but the Rebels came back with a 9-6 win in the second meeting before falling 11-2 to Miami in the regional finale.

Earlier this season, Ole Miss traveled to Columbia and suffered a series defeat in which all three games were decided by three runs or fewer. Will Ethridge and Jacob Cantleberry put on a pitchers' duel in Game 1, with Mizzou escaping with a 2-1 defeat. The Rebels took Game 2, 3-0, as freshman Doug Nikhazy took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and combined with Parker Caracci on a two-hitter, posting a line of 7.2 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 3 K. Mizzou won a back-and-forth third game that was split by a lightning delay, 8-5, to claim the series.

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.

SEC STRONG

Ole Miss tied for the fewest walks allowed in SEC play this season.

FILLING UP THE ZONE

Ole Miss is No. 21 in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 2.73. The Rebels are 27th nationally and third in the SEC with 3.28 walks allowed per nine innings.

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 turned in the best start of his career Friday night against Kentucky, going 7.0 scoreless innings with just three hits allowed, no walks and 11 strikeouts in the Rebels' 8-2 victory.

NIKHAZY CRAZIES

Freshman lefty Doug Nikhazy has moved into the Saturday night role and has been electric. He didn't disappoint in his first weekend start and first SEC start at Missouri. 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.

The lefty out of Windermere, Florida, was named SEC Freshman of the Week after shutting down Florida, going 6.0 innings with just one run allowed and six strikeouts. He turned in another terrific performance last week against Texas A&M, striking out a career-high 10 in 7.0 innings with no walks, four hits and just one earned run allowed to once again earn SEC Freshman of the Week honors. The 10 strikeouts came as the most by a Rebel freshman since Will Ethridge fanned 10 in his collegiate debut.

Nikhazy is the only player in the conference to be named SEC Freshman of the Week twice during SEC play this season. Nikhazy's two awards and Tyler Keenan's two Freshman of the Week nods in 2018 made it back-to-back years that the Rebels have had a player bring home the honor twice during SEC play.

At season's end, Nikhazy earned a spot on the SEC All-Freshman Team.

GUNNAR ON TARGET

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. Hoglund turned in a quality start in his last outing at Swayze against Texas A&M, going a career-long 6.0 innings with just two runs allowed on five hits with no walks and three strikeouts to help the Rebels sweep the Aggies.

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. After a slow start to 2019, Caracci has caught fire with the start of SEC play. Caracci went eight straight outings without allowing a run. His streak spanned 13.1 innings, in which he allowed just six hits with three walks, while striking out 19.

REBS ARE RUNNIN'

Ole Miss is No. 26 in the nation and No. 4 in the SEC with 394 runs scored on the season. The Rebels are averaging 7.0 runs per game, good for 38th nationally and fourth in the conference.

CROOKED NUMBERS

Ole Miss has scored 3 or more runs in an inning 51 times this season. The Rebels have had 23 three-run innings, 11 four-run innings, 7 five-run innings, 5 six-run innings, 2 seven-run innings, 2 eight-run innings and one nine-run inning.

DOUBLE DIGITS

Ole Miss scored in double figures 17 times this season, including a season-high of 25 against UAPB. Ole Miss reached double figures in all three games of the Florida series. The Rebels have reached double figures in hits 21 times, including a season high of 23 in Sunday's series-deciding 10-inning win at LSU.

40 SHADES OF GRAE

Junior Grae Kessinger has been on fire since the start of SEC play. He has hits in 32 of 40 games since league play started and went on a 40-game reached-base streak, spanning from March 8 until May 14. His reached-base streak stands as the longest by a Rebel since Tanner Mathis reached in 41 straight in 2011. It's the 17th-longest streak in the nation this season.

The outstanding season landed Kessinger on the All-SEC First Team. Kessinger led SEC in hits during conference play. He finished No. 2 in the league in batting average and on-base percentage during SEC play. The junior out of Oxford slashed .405/.472/.556 in league play with 27 R, 26 RBI and 13 extra-base hits. He was also among the top 10 in the league in doubles, total bases, slugging percentage, RBI and stolen bases.

TK, THE RBI MACHINE

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. 31 in the nation and No. 3 in the SEC in RBI with 60 on the year. Keenan leads Ole Miss and is seventh in the SEC with 13 home runs this year. He is 10th in the SEC in on-base percentage during conference play. He's also tied for fourth in the league with 11 HBPs on the year and led the league lead with 27 walks in SEC play.

OLEEEEEY, OLEY, OLEY, OLEY

Olenek has hits in 38 of 48 games this season and finished fourth in the SEC in batting average. Adding 13 doubles already this season, Oley has 53 doubles in his Rebel career, putting him in a tie for third place in Rebel history. He is seven shy of the all-time record of 60, owned by Brad Henderson.

DILLY DILLY!

Thomas Dillard's incredible start to the 2019 season drew some major national recognition as the junior slugger swept the national awards in Week 2. He's one of the most feared hitters in college baseball, having drawn the 15th-most walks in the country, the second-most in the SEC. Dillard was also second in the SEC in walks drawn in conference play.

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 six passed balls in 51 games played and has erased 17 would-be base stealers, the second-most in the SEC, in addition to a pair of pickoffs, leading to a Second Team All-SEC selection and an SEC All-Defensive Team nod.

Johnson was named SEC Player of the Week after slashing .545/.643/.909 in the LSU series with 6 R, 5 RBI, 2B, HR. In Sunday's series-clinching win, Johnson went 4-for-5, with four runs scored and four RBI, posting career-highs in hits and runs scored.

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.

RebelsCalendar

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Parker Caracci

Thomas Dillard

Will Ethridge

Brady Feigl

Gunnar Hoglund

Cooper Johnson

Tyler Keenan

Grae Kessinger

James McArthur

Doug Nikhazy

Ryan Olenek

Ryan Rolison

The University of Mississippi Athletics