Ole Miss Baseball Hosts No. 2 A&M in Rebels’ Regular-Season Home Finale

OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss (25-23, 9-15 SEC) will play their final three regular season games at Swayze Field this weekend as No. 2 Texas A&M (41-8, 16-8 SEC) comes to town. The Rebels will honor six seniors on Saturday night and their senior Diamond Girls on Friday night.

LEADING OFF

• Ole Miss is coming off a 12-9, 15-inning loss to Murray State on Wednesday night.
• Ole Miss pitching set a new single-game program record for strikeouts in the loss, punching out 24 Racers.
• Andrew Fischer hit a home run Wednesday for his fourth long ball in his last four games. He became the first Rebel to accomplish that feat since Logan Power in 2007.
• Fischer is now hitting .365 (19-52) with 19 RBI, 13 runs scored, and six home runs over his last 13 games.
• Luke Hill is hitting .396 (19-48) with nine runs scored and five walks over his last 12 games.
• Last weekend the Rebels won their third SEC series win of the season, taking two of three games from Auburn on the road.
• The series win was Ole Miss’ first road series win since May 14-16, 2022 when they swept LSU in Baton Rouge.
• Fischer hit a home run, drove in three or more runs, and scored at least one run in each game of the series.
• The sophomore drove in nearly half of the Rebels’ runs over the weekend, plating 11 of the 25 runs they scored. His 11 RBI were the most in the SEC and his 18 total bases were the second-most in the league.
• Jackson Ross leads the SEC and is fourth in the NCAA in walks with 52. His 52 walks the most by a Rebel in a single season since 2019 when Thomas Dillard set the program record with 61.
• Ole Miss is currently No. 2 in Strength of Schedule, having played one of the hardest schedules in the country.
• The Rebels are ranked 24^th in the nation in strikeouts per nine, averaging 10.1 punchouts per game.
• Ole Miss is 17^th in the NCAA in walks drawn (277), averaging 5.70 per game.
• Seniors Reagan Burford, Bo Gatlin, Ethan Groff, Ethan Lege, Mitch Murrell, and Jackson Ross will all be honored before Saturday’s game.

Injury Update

Ole Miss will be without Austin Simmons (UCL) and Ethan Lege (fractured thumb) in the series against A&M. Simmons is out for the season, while Lege is week-to-week. (Read more on their injuries HERE.)

SCOUTING REPORT

Jim Schlossnagle is in his third year as head coach at Texas A&M. Prior to taking over for the Aggies, Schlossnagle spent time at TCU and UNLV. Schlossnagle has found success in his first two seasons at Texas A&M, putting together an 82-47 overall record for the Aggies.

In 2023, the Aggies ended the year with a 38-27 overall record. The Aggies made a run in the SEC tournament playing six games, but ultimately fell to Vanderbilt, to end their time in Hoover. The Aggies turned around to play in the Stanford Regional and beat Cal State Fullerton in the first round, moved on to play Stanford but fell in the three-game series which inevitably ended their postseason run.

The Aggies are currently ranked No.2 in the country and boast a 41-8 overall record, and a 16-8 SEC record. The Aggies are coming off a midweek 16-3 win against Rice at Blue Bell Park in College Station.

Junior Braden Montgomery is currently ranked No. 9 in MLB’s top 20 College Prospects for the 2024 draft. The Madison Mississippi native is on the 2024 Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List, and the 2024 Bobby Bragan National Collegiate Slugger Award Watch List. The outfielder has a .342 batting average, 76 RBI’s, including 24 home runs.

The all-time series is deadlocked at 19 with just 38 all-time meetings between the two programs. Last season, the Aggies won two of three in Bryan-College Station.

FISCHING WITH DYNAMITE

Andrew Fischer became the first Rebel since 2007 to hit a home run in four straight games Wednesday night against Murray State. The last Rebel to accomplish the feat was Logan Power in 2007 (March 24 vs Alabama, March 25 vs Alabama, March 27 vs Southern Miss, and March 30 at Auburn).

Fischer is now hitting .365 (19-52) with 6 home runs, 19 RBI, and 13 runs scored over his last 13 games and has 19 total home runs on the season, matching Kemp Alderman’s team-leading total from 2023. The sophomore has moved into the top-25 in the NCAA and is seventh in the SEC in total home runs.

Fischer’s 19 home runs have him tied with Alderman for the third-most home runs in a single season in program history. The record is 24 set by Tim Elko in 2022.

Game Info

Ole Miss and Texas A&M are set for first pitch Friday night at 7:30 p.m. (CT). The matchup will be broadcast on the SEC Network. First pitch for game two is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. (CT) and will be streamed on SEC+. The series finale is Sunday at 5:00 p.m CT and will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

Evelyn Van Pelt

Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn’s love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.