No.15 Baseball Set to Host Florida for Early Week Three Conference Series
OXFORD, Miss. – (Release) No. 15 Ole Miss Baseball will host Florida this weekend for week three of SEC play. The series begins on Thursday night with first pitch set for 7 p.m. Friday night is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. while the finale on Saturday will start at 1:30 p.m.
LEADING OFF
- Ole Miss has now won four in a row after defeating Memphis on Tuesday night 7-5.
- The Rebels swept Missouri last weekend in Columbia for their first SEC series sweep since 2022.
- Ole Miss is now 4-2 in conference play, its best start since the 2021 season when it started 6-0.
- Last weekend marked the first time Ole Miss has won a series in Columbia, going 0-3 since the Tigers joined the SEC in 2012.
- The Rebels scored 40 runs in the series, the most runs they have put up in a conference series since they scored 40 in a sweep of Florida in 2019.
- Ole Miss hit six home runs in Saturday’s 17-10 win, the first time they have done that since May of 2023, the last time they were in Columbia.
- Ole Miss was ranked in four of the five polls this week coming in at No. 15 in the D1Baseball, USA Today, and Baseball America polls. The Rebels were also slotted at No. in the NCBWA poll.
- Isaac Humphrey was named the SEC Player of the Week and Dick Howser Trophy Player of the Week after hitting four home runs and collecting 13 RBI last weekend against Missouri.
- Ole Miss is tied with Kansas and Wake Forest for fifth in the NCAA in total home runs, hitting 51 long balls so far this season. They are fifth in the nation in home runs per game, averaging 2.13 home runs per game.
- Judd Utermark and Ryan Moerman each have nine home runs on the season, tied for 28th in the NCAA and sixth in the SEC.
- The Rebels are now ranked 12th in the NCAA and fifth in the SEC in slugging percentage at .551.
- Ole Miss’ pitching staff is now ranked sixth in the NCAA and fifth in the SEC in strikeouts per nine innings, owning a 12.1 K/9.
PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
Game 1: LHP Hunter Elliott (4-0, 2.79 ERA) vs. RHP Aidan King (3-1, 2.39 ERA)
Game 2: RHP Riley Maddox (3-2, 6.20 ERA) vs. TBA
Game 3: RHP Mason Nichols (2-0, 4.74 ERA) vs. TBA
TICKET INFORMATION
Single game tickets for all home games at Swayze Field can be purchased here.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Thursday’s game will be broadcast on ESPNUwith Victor Rojas (PxP) and Chris Burke (analyst) on the call. Friday and Saturday’s games will be streamed live on SEC Network+ with Richard Cross (PxP) and Keith Kessinger (analyst) on the call.
Fans can also listen to the game on the Ole Miss Radio Network with David Kellum (PxP) and Brad Henderson (analyst) on the call.
SCOUTING REPORT
Kevin O’Sullivan is in his 18th season as head coach for the Florida Gators and has accumulated an all-time 717-349 record which includes 16 NCAA berths, nine CWS trips, six SEC titles and an NCAA title.
The Gators ended the 2024 season with a 36-30 (13-17 SEC) record and advanced to the 2024 College World Series to make a postseason run. Florida ultimately fell to No. 4 Texas A&M 6-0 which ended Florida’s postseason campaign.
The Gators currently hold an 18-9 (0-6 SEC) record in the 2025 season and are coming off an 8-4 midweek loss to No. 4 Florida State.
Thursday night will mark the 109th meeting between the SEC foes. The Gators lead the all-time series 56-52. The two teams last played in March of 2023 as the Gators swept the Rebels in Oxford.
HUMP WEEK
Isaac Humphrey was named the SEC Player of the Week and the NCBWA Dick Howser Trophy Player of the Week after his huge weekend in Missouri.
Humphrey hit .389 (7-for-18) with four home runs, 13 RBI, and 21 total bases in four total games, including the Rebels’ midweek matchup with Southern Miss.
The senior went 1-for-3 with a double in Pearl before really heating up in Columbia. Humphrey hit .400 (6-for-15) with four home runs, 13 RBI, and 19 total bases as Ole Miss swept Missouri for their first conference sweep since 2022.
He came into the series with three total home runs on the season and more than doubled his total with four long balls in three games. He launched two home runs in the series-clinching win on Saturday for the first multi-home run game of his career.
Humphrey drove in 13 of the Rebels’ 40 runs scored in the series, a whopping 32.5 percent of the scoring.
REBEL NATION STAND UP
Ole Miss currently sports the fourth-highest attendance numbers in the NCAA, averaging 8,581 fans through the first 16 home games of the season. 137,294 total fans have already walked through the gates at Swayze Field through the first two months of the season.
SEC schools make up nine of the top 10 in attendance numbers with LSU, Arkansas, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss making up the top four.
WE’LL TAKE IT
Over their last four games, the Rebels have worked 27 walks and been hit by pitches 14 times for 41 total free passes.
They worked seven or more walks in all three games against Missouri and now have a .444 on base percentage in conference games. Ole Miss’ 147 walks are top-20 in the NCAA and fifth in the SEC.
IN A PINCH
Will Furniss has made the most of his pinch-hitting opportunities, hitting .600 (3-for-5) in those situations.
He went 3-for-3 in pinch hit opportunities last weekend against Missouri, hitting a three-RBI home run on Saturday and a double on Sunday.
ON THE PATH
Hayden Federico has reached base in every game of his young career, currently riding a 20-game on base streak.
The freshman is ranked second on the team in on base percentage at .459 and walks drawn with 19, behind only Luke Hill in both categories.
WASTE NO TIME
The Rebels are outscoring opponents 32-13 in the first inning and 56-19 over the first two innings of games this season, jumping on opponents early. They are 11-2 when scoring in the first inning and 16-1 when they score the first run of a game.
NEVER SAFE
The Rebel pitching staff has picked off nine runners this season, surpassing its totals from each of the last two seasons already. Hunter Elliott leads the team with five pickoffs, Riley Maddox has two, and Mason Nichols and Walker Hooks each have one.
-Courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics
Adam Brown
Adam Brown joins The Rebel Walk as the Managing Editor after being on the Ole Miss beat as a Sports Editor for over 11 years. He is a lifelong Oxford resident. Brown graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Prior to The Rebel Walk, Brown was the sports editor of HottyToddy.com covering every Ole Miss sport and local high school sports in the community.
