The Ole Miss Rebels caught fire at the right time and now find itself in the most sought after city in college baseball, Omaha, for the College World Series.
Friday first pitch is set for 6 p.m. CT between Ole Miss and its first CWS foe North Carolina. The game will be broadcast on ESPN if you aren’t making the trek to Nebraska for bracket play. You will also miss out on mass produced Jell-O shots at Rocco’s, but the Cup will provide updates of the shot challenge as the bar updates online.
The Tar
Heels are absolutely one of the best teams in college baseball this season with a 50-12-1 record. This is a team that only lost one series all season and that was to Virginia in early March, and its strength of schedule ranked 12th nationally according to Warren Nolen. Ole Miss’ strength of schedule was third nationally, but the Rebels did not quite pile up 50 wins as of yet.
This is an opponent who has had a lineup locked in from day one. Eight players have 55 or more starts this season while the Rebels come in at only six. Needless to say there should be loads of film on its batting order for pitching guru Joel Mangum to break down.
What he’ll see though is a team that hits when it counts and is pretty well balanced through its order. There are four hitters with ten or more home runs but only two players batting over .300 for the season (Owen Hull at .390 and Jake Schaffner at .358). Given that stat, the team collectively has a .293 batting average, which signals a lot of above average bats that make contact. UNC has only struck out 446 times this season compared to the Rebels massive total of 657 K’s.
Both the Rebels and Tar Heels have relied on its pitching staffs to get its teams into the CWS. Ole Miss has punched out 688 batters this season with a 4.37 team ERA and an opponents batting average of .246. UNC has a stellar 3.86 team ERA with 573 strikeouts and an opponents batting average of .239.
So again its very likely Friday will set up as a pitcher’s duel much like what Ole Miss saw at Auburn. I cannot imagine the Rebels scoring more than five or six runs at the most, so it will come down to head coach Mike Coach managing his pitchers and knowing when to make moves in this game.
Both head coaches are keeping its starting rotation quiet for now, but it would be shocking to see anyone but Hunter Elliott on the mound come Friday night. He has been the Friday starter all season, and while Cade Townsend has more rest on his side, it is Elliott who is the veteran in big games.
Like good ole number 36 tweeted less than a week ago, there’s only one thing left to do. Win the damn thing boys.
