The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Baseball Heads to Knoxville for Matchup With No. 7 Tennessee
3/21/2024 | Baseball
| Friday, March 22 5:30 p.m. CT  |
Saturday, March 23 5 p.m. CT |
Sunday, March 24 Noon CT |
| PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: LHP Gunnar Dennis 3-0, 4.56 ERA, 29 K, 11 BB Tennessee: RHP AJ Causey 4-0, 1.65 ERA, 38 K, 4 BB |
PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: LHP Liam Doyle 2-0, 3.95 ERA, 27 K, 4 BB Tennessee: RHP Drew Beam 3-1, 3.03 ERA, 26 K, 4 BB |
PROJECTED STARTERS Ole Miss: RHP Grayson Saunier 3-2, 4.09 ERA, 17 K, 9 BB Tennessee: TBA 0-0, - ERA, - K, - BB |
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss Baseball (16-6, 2-1 SEC) hits the road this weekend for its first road series since the first week of the season, taking on No. 7 Tennessee (19-3, 1-2 SEC) in Knoxville.
LEADING OFF
- Ole Miss defeated No. 25 Southern Miss Tuesday night in Pearl, Mississippi at Trustmark Park.
- Riley Maddox put together his second-consecutive quality start, working six innings and giving up just two earned runs while striking out six.
- The bullpen gave up just two hits to the Golden Eagles and kept the opponent off the board for the third-straight game.
- The Rebels opened SEC play last weekend with a series win over No. 20 South Carolina, taking two out of three games from the Gamecocks.
- Ole Miss has now won their opening conference series seven times in the last eight seasons.
- Andrew Fischer is hitting .400 with four home runs, 11 RBI, nine runs scored, and three doubles over his last eight games.
- Luke Hill is hitting .364 with eight runs scored, six RBI, and five stolen bases over his last nine games.
- Freshman Brayden Randle is hitting .321 with six runs scored and five RBI in his nine starts so far this season.
- The Ole Miss pitching staff is ranked 19th in the NCAA in total ERA, coming into the weekend with a 3.88.
- The Rebels are also ranked 15th in the nation in strikeouts per nine, averaging 11.2 punchouts per game.
- The bullpen has given up just one run over their last five outings and now lead the SEC in bullpen ERA at 3.02.
- Ole Miss is fourth in the NCAA in walks drawn (162), averaging 7.36 per game. They are one of three SEC teams in the top five.
- Jackson Ross leads the SEC in walks and walks per game with 26 free passes. He is also riding a 20-game on-base streak.
- Connor Spencer has four saves this season, tied at the top of the SEC with Arkansas' Gabe Gaeckle.
SCOUTING REPORT
Tony Vitello is in his seventh year as head coach at Tennessee. Since taking over the reins at Rocky Top, Vitello has led Tennessee to four NCAA regionals, three NCAA Super Regionals and a pair of College World Series appearances.
In the 2023 season, Tennessee ended the year with a 44-22 (16-14 SEC) record. The Volunteers had an impressive postseason run where they beat Clemson and Charlotte to win the NCAA Clemson Regional. They continued onto the NCAA Hattiesburg Super Regional where they won the series against Southern Mississippi, 2-1, to punch their ticket to Omaha. The Volunteers fell to the No. 5 LSU Tigers in the NCAA College World Series opener, beat the No. 8 seeded Stanford in an elimination game to stay alive, but fell again to LSU to end their time in Omaha.
Tennessee's trio of junior right-handed pitcher Drew Beam, junior infielder Billy Amick, and junior infielder Christian Moore were all recognized on the 2024 Golden Spike Award preseason watch list. UT's three players were the second most of any program in the country behind Wake Forest's four players.
Beam has an impressive resume including SEC Freshman of the Year honors in 2022. He continued his campaign in 2023 by leading Tennessee with nine victories in 17 starts, a 3.63 ERA, and a career-best 88 strikeouts. In the 2024 season, Beam has recorded a 3.03 ERA, 29.2 IP, and 26 strikeouts.
This will be the 95th meeting between the foes. The Rebels lead the series with a 50-43-1 overall record. The teams last met in the 2022 season at Swayze Field where Tennessee walked away with the 3-0 sweep against Ole Miss.
REBS IN RELIEF
The Rebel bullpen has given up just one run over their last five outings and now lead the SEC in bullpen ERA at 3.02. That is the third-lowest mark in the nation, behind only Washington and Long Beach State. The group is also second in the SEC in strikeouts and K/9.
The bullpen has only given up four home runs in 98.1 innings of work.
THROW HIM THE CHAIR
The Ole Miss pitching staff posted double-digit strikeout numbers in seven of their last 10 games. Their 236 total strikeouts is the 12th-highest total in the nation and they rank 14th in K/9, averaging 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
Liam Doyle leads the team in K/9 at 17.8. In his last two starts he has 18 punchouts, including 10 last weekend against South Carolina, the most by any Rebel in a single game this season. Connor Spencer has 13 strikeouts over his seven innings of work.
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 .464 (13-for-28) with 14 RBI with two outs and Ross is hitting .333 (8-for-24) with seven RBI in the same situation.
GETTING THEIR STEPS IN
Ole Miss has drawn the fourth-highest number of walks in the nation with 162 free passes in 22 games. The Rebels are averaging 7.36 walks per game and are one of three teams from the SEC in the top five (South Carolina, Texas A&M, Ole Miss). Their 162 walks come out to 14,580 total feet or 2.76 miles of free bases.
Jackson Ross is fourth in the NCAA and leads the SEC with 26 total walks himself. He is averaging 1.18 walks per game, also the most in the SEC.
During their series against High Point, the Rebels set a new single-game program record for walks with 19 in game three.
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.
