‘This is when it tests you’ | Ole Miss baseball must ‘figure it out’ with trip to No. 1 Arkansas coming up
OXFORD, Miss. — If the old adage “you are what the numbers say you are” is true, the Diamond Rebels have plenty of work to do after being swept at home by Kentucky this past weekend. Head coach Mike Bianco’s response was succinct Sunday when asked what his message was to the team after the loss.
“We’ve gotta figure it out,” he explained after Ole Miss was run-ruled in game three, 15-1.
“We talk about chemistry and leadership and all these different things ‒ this is when it tests you. When you’re awful and you play bad and you don’t feel good, can you stick together and can you continue to fight?”
Coach Mike Bianco
The Rebels, 18-11 overall and 3-6 in Southeastern Conference play, will have to continue to fight as a trip to No. 1 Arkansas comes this weekend.
Ole Miss has struggled at one time or another in pretty much all aspects of the game this season.
Rebel pitching gave up 37 runs to Kentucky (24-4, 8-1 SEC) in this series, including 17 and 15 against the Wildcats in games two and three.
Ole Miss currently ranks 13th in the SEC in team ERA (5.62). Only Florida (5.97) has a higher ERA than the Rebels. Ole Miss also leads the league in passed balls with 12. The next closest team is Kentucky with five.
Throughout the course of the three-game series vs. the Wildcats, Ole Miss starters managed to complete just nine innings on the mound — and that includes 5.2 innings pitched from starter Riley Maddox on Friday.
Liam Doyle made it 2.2 innings on Saturday in his start in game two, while Gunnar Dennis made it just 2/3 of the first inning Sunday.
“The games when we’ve had success, we’ve been able to attack the strike zone and get in good counts,” Bianco said after Sunday’s loss. “We didn’t do that today or yesterday.”
To make matters worse, the Rebels issued 20 walks in the 25 innings played this weekend against Kentucky, and that led to 10 runs that scored.
At the plate, Ole Miss is currently 11th in the league with a .278 batting average.
In the 5-3 loss to Kentucky Friday, Ole Miss was just 1-for-16 (.063) with runners on. They were 0-11 (.000) with runners in scoring position.
Coach Bianco acknowledged the difficulties the Rebels are facing.
“This tests everybody’s mettle. This is tough. We haven’t played well. There’s no excuses. That’s on me. That’s on the team. We have to be better to compete in this league and we haven’t.”
Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco
Defensively, Ole Miss is also struggling in the field. The Rebels are 14th — dead last in the league — with a .966 fielding percentage. In the 29 games played thus far this season, Coach Bianco’s team has recorded 34 errors, seven more than the next closest team, Alabama, who has committed 27.
How does this compare to the errors made last season? In the entirety of 2023, the Rebels committed a total of 38 errors across a 54-game season.
In the 5-3 loss to Kentucky in game one Friday, Ole Miss tallied three errors that led to three unearned Wildcat runs. On Saturday, they committed six errors.
After opening the season with a 2-1 series win over South Carolina at home, Ole Miss has just one win its last six games. Those six games — Tennessee in Knoxville and Kentucky — saw the opponents outscore the Rebels, 72-28.
Is there time to turn things around for this season? Of course, but the going is about to get tougher. Of the remaining seven series the Rebels play in conference, five of the opponents are ranked.
Ole Miss has 21 SEC games remaining in series at:
- at No. 1 Arkansas (April 4-6),
- vs. No. 23 Mississippi State (April 12-14)
- at Georgia (April 19-21)
- vs. No. 13 Alabama (April 26-28)
- at Auburn (May 3-5)
- No. 3 A&M (May 10-12)
- at No. 18 LSU (May 16-18)
There is certainly time for Ole Miss to right the ship, but the Rebels will need to play much better than they have thus far.
Coach Bianco talked about the remaining games after Sunday’s loss.
“A lot of opportunity. If you don’t play better than that, it’s not really gonna matter how many games you got left. But, if we can play like we have and like we’re capable of playing, there’s a lot of games left.”
Coach Bianco
Next Up
Ole Miss plays a midweek game against Memphis Tuesday with first pitch set for 6:00 p.m. The game is streaming on ESPN+.
Then, the Rebels travel for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series against the No. 1-ranked Razorbacks who just swept LSU this past weekend. First pitch on Thursday is set for 6:00 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on SEC Network.
David Walker
David Walker was named Louisiana’s High School Player of the Year at just 16 years old and, at 17, became college football’s first quarterback to earn Freshman of the Year honors. He remains the NCAA’s youngest-ever starting quarterback, a distinction that has stood for decades.
Transitioning from a wide-open high school offense to Emory Bellard’s renowned wishbone triple option, Walker excelled as a dual-threat quarterback. He graduated as Texas A&M’s all-time winningest quarterback and served as a two-time team captain, helping to transform a program that had endured 15 losing seasons in the previous 16 years.
After his playing career, Walker coached and taught algebra at six Texas high schools before moving into private business. In 2011, he published his memoir, “I’ll Tell You When You’re Good,” a title inspired by the coaching philosophy of Shannon Suarez, the Sulphur High and Louisiana High School Hall of Fame coach who was a significant influence on Walker’s life and career.
Walker’s compelling storytelling in his autobiography reflects the breadth of his experiences in high school and college football, and it is an undeniable fact that he saw more action than any athlete in the history of the NCAA. Since 2013, he has contributed to The Rebel Walk, sharing his insights and expertise with readers.
