University, Miss. (TLV) – It was one of the most memorable baseball weekends in Ole Miss history. From “Homerun Beer Showers” to a pitcher scoring the winning run on Sunday, the Rebels gave the 27,000 plus in attendance plenty to cheer about.
Knocking off #1 Florida twice in the three game series gave the Diamond Rebs enough momentum to leap frog LSU and jump to #10 in this week’s Baseball America Poll.
Except for one inning on Saturday, the Rebels dominated the Gators from top to bottom. A three hit shutout on Friday night was enough to earn Bobby Wahl SEC Pitcher of the Week honors and Alex Yarbrough put on hitting clinic against the nation’s deepest bullpen. After the weekend, Yarbrough’s batting average jumped to .426, good enough for second in the conference.
Zach Kirksey, despite being intentionally walked twice over the weekend, maintained his conference-best slugging percentage .817, RBI at 37 and homeruns at 10.
As a team, the Rebels are among the elite in almost all SEC offensive categories. Ole Miss is #2 behind Kentucky in batting average (.311), runs scored (201), hits (303), and RBI (186). Ole Miss has also struck the least amount of times of any other SEC squad with just 133 strikeouts.
Last Tuesday’s Ole Miss-Southern Miss rematch game in Jackson, Mississippi was postponed due to rain and lightning.
Now, on to Kentucky. The Wildcats are ranked as high as #1 and as low as #8 in three college baseball polls. They won 21 straight to open the season and will be a tough match for the Rebels pitching staff. However, if the staff can reproduce its outing on the mound that was witnessed in Oxford against Florida, a series win is possible.
After the Kentucky series, the Rebels will play a double header at home mid-week against
Arkansas State before heading to Georgia for a Thursday (ESPNU)-Friday-Saturday series.
This article was published in The Local Voice #153 (April 5-19, 2012).
