The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
South Carolina
Baseball Set to Host No. 20 South Carolina for SEC Opening Weekend
3/14/2024 | Baseball
| Friday, March 15 6:30 p.m. CT  |
Saturday, March 16 1 p.m. CT  |
Sunday, March 17 1:30 p.m. CT |
| PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: LHP Gunnar Dennis 3-0, 4.34 ERA, 22 K, 9 BB South Carolina: RHP Eli Jones 2-0, 1.40 ERA, 17 K, 2 BB |
PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: LHP Liam Doyle 1-0, 3.24 ERA, 17 K, 3 BB South Carolina: RHP Dylan Eskew 2-1, 2.89 ERA, 15 K, 6 BB |
PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: RHP Grayson Saunier 3-1, 2.55 ERA, 15 K, 8 BB South Carolina: TBA 0-0, - ERA, - K, - BB |
OXFORD, Miss. – SEC conference play has finally arrived as Ole Miss Baseball (13-5) welcomes No. 20 South Carolina (14-3) to Oxford this weekend.
LEADING OFF
- Ole Miss is coming off a 5-3 road win over ULM Tuesday evening that featured a go-ahead triple from Andrew Fischer and stellar outfield play by Treyson Hughes.
- The Rebels are currently riding a seven-game winning streak and have won 11 of their last 12 games.
- Ethan Lege hit .600 (9-for-15) with 10 RBI, six runs scored, three home runs, and an OPS of 1.847 over four games last week. The senior has at least one RBI in 11 of his last 12 games.
- Ole Miss is third in the NCAA in walks drawn (140), averaging 7.78 per game. They are one of four SEC teams at the top of the category.
- Jackson Ross leads the SEC, and is second in the nation, in walks with 24, averaging 1.33 per game. He has reached base in 16-straight games.
- Ross is also second in the SEC and 32nd in the nation in on-base percentage at .560. The Rebels are top-25 in the NCAA with a .436 on-base percentage.
- Rebel pitching has posted double-digit strikeout numbers in nine of their last 12 games, striking out 50 batters last week alone.
- Ole Miss is tied for 10th in the NCAA in total strikeouts and 17th in K/9, averaging 11.2 strikeouts per game.
- The pitching staff has allowed three or fewer earned runs in six of their last seven games and has issued four or fewer walks in each of the last seven games.
- The Rebels are 35th in the NCAA in ERA and have only allowed more than one home run in a game one time this season.
- Saturday's game on SEC Network will be the first nationally televised game for the Rebels this season.
SCOUTING REPORT
Mark Kingston is in his seventh year as head coach at the University of South Carolina. Kingston came to South Carolina after a three-year 3run as head coach at the University of South Florida. Kingston has had three NCAA tournament appearances since taking the reins for South Carolina.
Last season the Gamecocks hosted and won the NCAA Columbia Regional, defeating Connecticut State, N.C State and Campbell. They advanced to the Gainesville Super Regional but were defeated, 5-4, by the No. 2 seeded Florida Gators.
South Carolina junior catcher Cole Messina and sophomore outfielder Ethan Petry both were named to the 2024 Golden Spikes Award Watch List per USA Baseball and to the preseason All-SEC First Team. Messina is averaging .262 in the box with seven home runs and has contributed 19 RBIs to the Gamecocks books. Petry currently has a batting average of .316 with six home runs and has earned 12 RBIs this season.
USC's pitching staff will look different this year after all three of their top-weekend starting pitchers were selected in the 2023 MLB Draft. Junior right-handed pitcher, Eli Jones, has pitched 19.1 innings and has a 1.40 ERA on the season. In 2023, Jones appeared in 23 games including six starts, and had a career high 10 strikeouts in five innings pitched against Arkansas.
The Rebels welcome the No. 20 Gamecocks to Swayze Field for a three-game weekend series to open SEC play. South Carolina is riding a six-game winning streak into Oxford and is currently 14-3 heading into conference competition. The two teams last met in 2022 at Founders Park in Columbia where the Gamecocks took two of three to win the series. Ole Miss and South Carolina have met 67 times, where USC holds the all-time lead in the series, 39-28.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
As Ole Miss prepares to head into the conference portion of their schedule, Ethan Lege leads the Rebel offense in batting average, hits, doubles, and RBI. His .379 average at the plate is .133 higher than where he was at this time last season. The senior has also drove in 12 more runs, hit three more home runs, and almost doubled his slugging percentage from last season's non-conference slate.
The pitching staff comes into the weekend with a 3.79 ERA, nearly a run lower than this time last year. Grayson Saunier has been a big part of the staff's success, taking his ERA through his first four games of the season down to 2.55 from 5.74 and holding opponents to just a .190 batting average.
CAPTAIN(S) CLUTCH
Ethan Lege and Jackson Ross have been Ole Miss' two most clutch hitters when at the plate with two outs in an inning. Lege is hitting .458 (11-for-24) with 11 RBI with two outs and Ross is hitting .444 (8-for-18) with seven RBI in the same situation. The Rebels as a team are hitting .268 and have scored 49 runs with two outs in an inning.
THROW HIM THE CHAIR
The Ole Miss pitching staff has been turning things up on the mound lately, posting double-digit strikeout numbers in nine of their last 12 games. Their 191 total strikeouts has them tied with Vanderbilt for the 10th-highest mark in the nation and they rank 17th in K/9, averaging 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
Connor Spencer boasts the highest strikeout average, converting nine of the 10 outs he has collected this season by way of the strikeout. Liam Doyle's eight punchouts in 3.1 innings last Saturday has pushed his total to 17 in 8.1 innings of work. Mason Nichols has struck out 14 batters in his nine innings of work.
STAFF OUTING
Ole Miss has allowed three or less earned runs in six of its last seven games and issued four or less walks in each of its last seven. They have only allowed more than one home run in a game once this season and have allowed just one total over their last five games.
The Rebels are ranked 35th in the NCAA in total ERA, coming into the weekend with a 3.97.
GETTING THEIR STEPS IN
Ole Miss has drawn the third-highest number of walks in the nation with 140 free passes in 18 games. The Rebels are averaging 7.78 walks per game and are one of four teams from the SEC at the top of the national leaderboard (South Carolina, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and Georgia). Their 140 walks come out to 12,600 total feet or 2.39 miles of free bases.
Jackson Ross is tied for second in the NCAA and leads the SEC with 24 total walks himself. He is averaging 1.33 walks per game, also the most in the SEC. Luke Hill ranks fifth in the SEC with 17 walks.
During their series against High Point, the Rebels set a new single-game program record for walks with 19 in game three.
SACRIFICES MUST BE MADE
Ole Miss is ranked third in the NCAA in sacrifice flies with 18. Ethan Lege and Treyson Hughes lead the SEC with four apiece.
BOMB SQUAD
The Rebels hit 10 home runs in their three-game series against High Point, doing something that has only been done once before in the Mike Bianco Era. The last time an Ole Miss team hit 10 or more home runs in a three-game series was in 2020 against Princeton just before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to 2020, the feat had not been accomplished since 1998.
POWER CYCLE
In their 25-2 win over High Point, the Rebels accomplished the incredibly rare feat of completing the home run cycle in just the first inning. Ethan Groff led off the inning with a solo home run followed by a grand slam by Will Furniss. With one out in the inning, Reagan Burford hit a two-RBI home run and then Jackson Ross completed the cycle with a two-out, three-RBI shot five batters later.
RUNNING AWAY WITH IT
Ole Miss scored 25 runs against High Point in the series finale, falling just three runs short of the single-game record set in 1989. Their 25 runs were the most scored in one game since March 20, 2019 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (W, 25-0). It was just the sixth time in the last six seasons that the Rebels have broken the 20-run mark in a game.
They scored 11 runs in just the first inning of play, the most in a single inning since April 26, 2018 against LSU. In total, 15 hitters came to the plate, seven had hits in the inning, five drew walks, and five drove in runs.
Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Rebels by following Ole Miss baseball on X at @OleMissBSB, on Facebook at Facebook.com/OleMissBaseball, on Instagram at Instagram.com/officialolemissbsb and on TikTok at @olemissbsb. Also, follow head coach Mike Bianco on X at @CoachMikeBianco.
