Jacob Gonzalez, Xavier Rivas shine in Ole Miss baseball’s opening series
OXFORD, Miss. – In recent years, Ole Miss has been a pipeline to the major league baseball draft. In June, Jacob Gonzalez might go to the head of that class as the highest drafted Rebel. He’s projected by MLB.com as a top-five selection.
In Sunday’s 14-4 win over Delaware, the shortstop drove in a career-high seven runs with a three-run double and a grand slam.
We've got dinger No. 1 for Ole Miss shortstop Jacob Gonzalez, and it's a grand slam. Really leaned on this one. pic.twitter.com/ee3MOuEZml
— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) February 19, 2023
But that kind of performance is almost ho-hum for an almost sure-fire, first-round draft pick.
“Sometimes it’s unfair when you’re that good and there’s such a high expectation that you go 2-for-4 with 7 RBIs and people act like it’s a normal day at the office. I guess that’s the punishment for being so good.“
Head coach Mike Bianco on Jacob Gonzalez
Gonzalez talked about his grand slam after the game.
“My first at-bat he threw me a slow breaking ball and I didn’t realize how slow it actually was,” Gonzalez said. “So I took the first swing at it so then I knew if I got another one, I’ve got to wait a little longer and I saw it up out of (his) hand, it was the first pitch so I just swung.”
He certainly did and has been doing it through the first series of the season that saw the Rebels sweep Delaware and remain ranked fourth nationally.
As a team, Ole Miss is hitting .392 with six doubles, a triple and eight home runs.
“We’ve known we have a good offense, I mean this team is mostly offensive based usually except for kind of last year. I guess our defense helped, I mean our pitching helped us win like most of last season, but yeah, this team is scary offensively.”
Jacob Gonzalez
Xavier Rivas makes Ole Miss debut
The pitching has been just as impressive. Sunday, Xavier Rivas made his Ole Miss debut and he went right after the Blue Hens, something Gonzalez saw him do in the fall and early spring camp.
“He just attacks people,” Gonzalez said. “He comes after you.”
Rivas pitched four-and-a-third innings, giving up just one run and striking out eight.
Four innings, no runs, one hit, eight Ks. @XavierRivas33 is feeling it. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/WWgMSgVYBp
— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) February 19, 2023
Apart from the offense that produced 14 runs on 14 hits, Rivas praised another aspect of the game for his success – the Ole Miss crowd.
“This is probably more people than I’ve ever pitched in front of in my life. It was unbelievable, getting the win was the most important thing, but pitching in front of 10,000-plus here, yeah getting to walk off the mound and getting the cheers, it’s something special for sure, something I’ve never experienced and it’s why I came here. These fans are great and when they’re clapping after two strikes, it does help you know when you’re on the mound and you want to do it for the crowd.”
Xavier Rivas on pitching at Swayze in his debut
There were 9,983 fans in Swayze Field Sunday, while 10,512 attended Saturday’s win and 11,242 saw the season opener Friday.
The Rebels were also solid defensively, not committing an error in the series. The final out Sunday, which occurred in the bottom of the seventh ending the game by the 10-run rule, happened in appropriate fashion.
Gonzalez made a sliding catch by the tarp in foul ground to end a successful opening homestand.
Up Next
Ole Miss returns to Swayze Field Tuesday against Arkansas State. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. and can be seen on the alternate channel of the SEC Network.
(Feature image credit: Josh McCoy, Ole Miss)
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
