Only two regular season weekends remain for No. 20 Ole Miss to make its case for the postseason, and the final home series with No. 9 Texas A&M might be the biggest weekend of the season.
Currently the Rebels (32-17, 12-12 SEC) sit at No. 13 in the RPI rankings, which in theory is a decent spot considering there are 16 regional hosts. The Aggies (36-10, 15-8 SEC) are two spots ahead at No. 11 in the RPI, so it is very much a huge boost for either team to get the series win as TAMU would be getting
a road series win against a highly ranked Ole Miss team.
PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday, May 8, 6:30 p.m. CT
- Ole Miss: LHP Hunter Elliott (4-2, 5.49 ERA)
- Texas A&M: LHP Ethan Darden (4-0, 2.88 ERA)
Saturday, May 9, 4 p.m. CT
- Ole Miss: RHP Cade Townsend (5-1, 2.42 ERA)
- Texas A&M: RHP Aiden Sims (8-1, 3.60 ERA)
Sunday, May 10, 5 p.m. CT
- Ole Miss: RHP Taylor Rabe (3-3, 4.17 ERA)
- Texas A&M: TBA
Hunter Elliott was disappointing last week in Fayetteville against the Hogs getting chased early in the Friday series opener. His ERA looks more and more concerning with every outing, but in what could be his final start at Swayze Field, will the juices be flowing to shut down the Aggies and get this series started right? Lefty Ethan Darden has been used mostly out of the bullpen this season with a sub three ERA, but he was a starting pitcher at Clemson prior to transferring. It will be a big question as to how long Darden goes in this game if there are runs scored early and if Aggie coaches decide to put this game into a bullpen by committee situation.
Saturday to me is going to be must see college baseball with Cade Townsend and Aiden Sims taking the mound. Sims has delivered three straight quality starts on the road in SEC play against Florida, LSU and Missouri while Townsend is coming off his longest appearance of the season against Arkansas where he led Ole Miss to a win.
And while it sounds like a broken record, by far the biggest concern is how Ole Miss finds a way to manufacture runs against an SEC opponent. Only three players in the lineup are batting over .300 in conference play and the team has struck out 506 times in 1581 at bats this season. That equals out to more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings, which is not what anyone wants to see but is being forced to watch every weekend.
I don’t know the answer for Mike Bianco, and while he has tried different lineups, nothing has really consistently stuck other than Owen Paino having some good games at the dish and Austin Fawley’s more recent resurgence as a power hitter. All Bianco can do is to keep giving players at bats and chances to earn their place in the lineup and hope something clicks in my opinion.
Games on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live on SEC Network+ while the Sunday series finale will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
