Weathersby gets the start for Ole Miss in Governor’s Cup tonight
Ole Miss and Mississippi State will face off tonight at 6:30 pm at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss. for the Governor’s Cup.
Ole Miss (23-22, 10-11 SEC) enters the game 34th in RPI and is also sporting the nation’s third-toughest schedule. The Rebels are coming off a 2-1 series win over Alabama.
Mississippi State (23-21, 7-14) has lost three straight series (A&M, Florida and Arkansas). With a weekend matchup against LSU, the Bulldogs could be headed for their fourth straight conference series loss. Tonight’s game will be the first midweek game for MSU since April 7.
Scouting the Bulldogs
At the plate, State is led by redshirt-sophomore Jacob Robson who has a .353 batting average and a team-high 17 stolen bases. Senior Wes Rea has 30 RBIs, nine doubles and a .522 slugging percentage.
On the mound, the Bulldogs will go with senior, lefty Ross Mitchell. Mitchell is 3-2 this season and has a 4.30 ERA. He has had 18 relief appearances this year, but this will be his first start. Coming out of the bullpen, Mitchell has 14 strikeouts and 11 walks in 44.0 innings on the mound.
Ole Miss coming off solid week
Austin Knight hit two homers in consecutive at-bats vs. Bama. (Photo credit: Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)
Last week, Ole Miss went 3-2 and notched 68 hits during the five-game week. The Rebels defeated Central Arkansas and Alabama (twice) and dropped a game to Memphis and one to Alabama.
In four of the five games last week, the Rebels had double-digit hits. Thus far on the season, Ole Miss has an overall team batting average of .262 and an overall conference batting average of .241.
Against the Crimson Tide last weekend, the Rebels tallied five home runs. Senior Austin Knight hit his first two career home runs against Alabama—and did so in consecutive at-bats.
Connor Cloyd has notched six straight multi-hit games. He hit .565 last week, going 13-for-23. In addition to Cloyd, Ole Miss had two other players who hit .500 or better last week: Colby Bortles hit .500 (9-for-18) and Austin Knight hit .500 (8-for-16).
Weathersby gets first career start
Scott Weathersby will get his first career start for Ole Miss tonight. (Photo credit: Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)
Senior Scott Weathersby will start on the mound for the Rebels tonight, his first career start for Ole Miss.
The Hattiesburg native has made 47 relief appearances in his career. He has posted a 2.15 ERA in 13 appearances and through 33.1 innings of work has struck out 40 batters and only walked seven.
In his last game, Weathersby worked a perfect 1.2 innings of relief with two strikeouts to pick up the save in game two of the series against Alabama.
Weathersby is holding opposing hitters to a mere .158 average at the plate this season.
Governor’s Cup notes
Though the two teams have such a long and storied history, it will be only the ninth time they will have met for the Governor’s Cup. Prior to the Governor’s Cup, the teams played each year for the Mayor’s Trophy, with Ole Miss winning 14 times and State winning 13. State won the first two Governor’s Cup games before the Rebels won back-to-back contests in 2009 and 2010. The rivals split the 2011 and 2012 match-ups, followed by State victories in 2013 and 2014. In the Governor’s Cup/Mayor’s Trophy series, State leads 18-17.
Ole Miss will be the home team tonight at the neutral site.
Where to catch the game:
The game is not scheduled for television but will be broadcast on the Ole Miss Radio Network, with David Kellum handling play-by-play and Keith Kessinger serving as analyst. Live audio can be accessed via OleMissSports.com
(Featured Image courtesy of Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)
