Friday night will feel like a heavyweight title bout as No. 18 Ole Miss takes on No. 22 Arizona State to open regional play in Lincoln.
The Rebels (36-21) are the two seed and starting its first road regional since 2022 (what happened that year?). The Sun Devils (37-19) are one of the stronger three seeds in the country finishing third in the Big 12 regular season behind West Virginia and Kansas who are both regional hosts.
PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUP
- Ole Miss: LHP Hunter Elliott (5-3, 5.07 ERA)
- Arizona State: LHP Cole Carlon (5-2, 3.51 ERA)
Hunter Elliott will start for Ole Miss with several
big time appearances on his resume this moment will not be too big for him with first pitch set for 8 p.m. CT. He is the last remaining player from the 2022 magical run to the national championship “Last In, Last Out” team, and after battling injuries the last two seasons, he can still cook up some great stuff. It’s been an up and down year for him without a doubt, but you have to think as a fan he wants to lead the Rebels out of this regional and maybe get one more start back at Swayze Field.
Elliott is one of only three pitchers to ever amass 300 strikeouts at Ole Miss and is 20 punchouts from second place Lance Lynn and 32 K’s away from record holder Drew Pomeranz. In my opinion, lets get this guy three or four more starts and break the record but thats just me.
ASU will send lefty Cole Carlon to the hill to start, and he is a 6’5” 230 lbs. strikeout machine for all intents and purposes. He has posted 124 K’s in 77 IP this season with only 29 walks, so given the Rebels penchant for swinging and missing a lot, Ole Miss will have to find a way to work counts and get Carlon out of the game as quickly as possible.
In Carlon’s last outing, he went 5.1 IP and gave up one earned run to West Virginia a week ago. For some SEC related action, he faced Mississippi State earlier in the year going 4.2 IP, 3 earned runs and struck out seven.
This game could end up devolving into a slugfest though once bullpens are tapped into as both teams have hit 100 or more home runs this year. Judd Utermark and Tristan Bissetta lead the Rebels with 20 dingers while Landon Hairston leads the Sun Devils with a whopping 28 home runs (also batting .413).
Please, please, Mike Bianco just walk Hairston and don’t try to do that thing where you finish him with high fastballs on two strike counts. I have a feeling you will do what you’ve done the last 26 seasons and not follow that advice and this dude is gonna crank one to the damn moon though. The rest of the ASU lineup is incredibly solid offensively as well batting .320 as a team, and while I don’t know a single one of them, you have to believe this team feels a little slighted as a three seed.
TLDR? ASU can smack the ball around, Hunter needs to be his old self and Bianco might coach us out of the game. Grab some cold frosty pops and turn on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. CT for the next great postseason run of Ole Miss baseball, cheers!
