No. 9 Baseball Travels to Lexington for Early Start Series Against Kentucky
OXFORD, Miss. – (Release)No. 9 Ole Miss Baseball has won seven of their last eight games and will now head to Lexington, Kentucky for a three-game series against the Kentucky Wildcats starting on Thursday, April 3. First pitch on Thursday is set for 6 p.m., Friday will start at 5:30 p.m., and Saturday’s finale will begin at 1 p.m.
LEADING OFF
- Ole Miss defeated Jackson State on Tuesday night 18-7, scoring 18 runs on 10 hits.
- The Rebels drew 18 walks in the win, one shy of the program record, and were hit by pitches four times.
- Every starter in the game drew at least one walk and Ryan Moerman tied the single-game record with four walks. Owen Paino drew two walks and was hit twice by pitches.
- Luke Cheng hit a three-RBI walk-off home run to end the game, his second home run of the season and just the third of his career.
- Ole Miss is now 6-3 in conference play, its best start since the 2021 season when it started 7-2.
- Ole Miss was ranked in all five polls this week coming in at No. 9 in the D1Baseball poll, No. 10 in both the USA Today and Baseball America polls, No. 13 in the NCBWA poll, and No. 16 in the Perfect Game poll.
- Mitchell Sanford is hitting .449 with 7 home runs, 21 runs scored, and 17 RBI over his last 12 games.
- Ole Miss is tied with Florida State for seventh in the NCAA in total home runs, hitting 58 long balls so far this season. They are seventh in the nation in home runs per game, averaging 2.04 home runs per game.
- They are also ranked 14th in the NCAA and fifth in the SEC in slugging percentage at .558.
- The Rebels are ranked ninth in the NCAA and third in the SEC in total walks drawn with 189.
- Ole Miss’ pitching staff is ranked sixth in the NCAA and fifth in the SEC in strikeouts per nine innings, owning a 12.1 K/9.
- Sophomore Austin Fawley returns to Kentucky for the first time after playing his freshman season in Lexington. He appeared in 10 games in 2024 for the Wildcats.
PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
Game 1: LHP Hunter Elliott (5-0, 3.12 ERA) vs. TBA
Game 2: RHP Riley Maddox (3-2, 7.27 ERA) vs. RHP Scott Rouse (3-0, 4.68 ERA)
Game 3: RHP Mason Nichols (2-0, 4.82 ERA) vs. LHP Ben Cleaver (3-1, 2.50 ERA)
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Thursday’s game will be broadcast on SEC Network with Derrick Jones (PxP) and Lance Cormier (analyst) on the call. Friday and Saturday’s games will be streamed live on SEC Network+ with Dick Gabriel and Doug Flynn on the call.
Fans can also listen to all three games on the Ole Miss Radio Network with David Kellum (PxP) and Brad Henderson (analyst) on the call.
SCOUTING REPORT
Nick Mingione is in his ninth season at the helm of the Kentucky Wildcats baseball program.
Last season, the Wildcats compiled an impressive 46-16 (22-8 SEC) season record and advanced to the 2024 NCAA College World Series. After hosting a regional, and super regional, Kentucky advanced to the CWS and defeated NC State 5-4 in 10 innings to open their run in Omaha. The Wildcast eventually fell to Texas A&M and Florida which ended their historic postseason run.
The Wildcats are currently 17-9 (4-5 SEC) in the 2025 season and are coming off a 10-5 win over Texas A&M to secure the series 2-1 over the Aggies.
Ole Miss leads the all-time series over Kentucky 54-39. The last meeting between the two foes was March 29-31, 2024 where No. 15 Kentucky swept the series against Ole Miss in Oxford.
HOT BAT
Since the beginning of conference play, Mitchell Sanford is hitting .449 (22-for-49) over his last 12 games with seven home runs, 21 runs scored, and 17 RBI. The senior has eight multi-hit games and 15 extra-base hits during that stretch.
Sanford now leads the Rebels in batting average, slugging percentage, runs scored, and total bases. His .745 slugging percentage is the eighth highest in the SEC.
WE’LL TAKE IT
Over their last eight games, the Rebels have worked 69 walks and been hit by pitches 20 times for 89 total free passes.
They drew 18 walks on Tuesday night against Jackson State, one shy of the program record set last season against High Point. The Rebels have worked 20+ walks in each of their last two SEC series, drawing 22 against Missouri and 24 against Florida.
Ole Miss is ranked third in the SEC in total walks (189), fifth in hit by pitches (55), and fourth in on base percentage (.439).
WASTE NO TIME
The Rebels are outscoring opponents 39-13 in the first inning and 64-25 over the first two innings of games this season, jumping on opponents early. They are 14-2 when scoring in the first inning and 19-1 when they score the first run of a game.
NEVER SAFE
The Rebel pitching staff has picked off 12 runners this season, their highest total since 2009 when they caught 13 runners. Hunter Elliott leads the team with seven pickoffs, the most by a Rebel pitcher in the Bianco Era. Riley Maddox has two pickoffs while Cooper Johnson, Mason Nichols, and Walker Hooks each have one.
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 in the series against Missouri, hitting a three-RBI home run on Saturday and a double on Sunday.
-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.
