Weekend Preview- Alabama versus Ole Miss

After absolutely crushing Minnesota, Northwestern State in a midweek set, and beating Indiana State, Bianco's Rebels have been struggling to find enough offense to win games. While the Rebel batters did manage double digit runs in two of the games against Mississippi State, it's Mississippi State, and their first two in the rotation are horrible.

It's almost like State pitcher Ricky Bowen put the Rebel batters in some sort of a trance. Since his lights out complete game, the Rebels are 2-5 and averaging a meager 4 runs per game while allowing 5.142 runs.

After a disappointing showing against Florida, Mike Bianco had to search for answers. Bianco, who never makes knee-jerk decisions, has decided to change his rotation after 5 weeks. Initially, Lynn, Satterwhite, and Baker were the starters. Lynn and Satterwhite throw similiar pitches, and it seemed as if Satterwhite did not have a chance on Saturday after the batters had seen Lynn the day before. So, here is the new rotation going into the weekend:

OLE MISS:
Jr. RHP Lance Lynn (4-0, 1.50 ERA)
Fr. LHP Drew Pomeranz (1-0, 1.56 ERA)
Jr. RHP Cody Satterwhite (2-0, 4.50 ERA

This is the rotation that the Rebel batters will see:

ALABAMA
Jr. RHP Austin Hyatt (2-2, 3.55 ERA)
So. RHP Austin Graham (2-1, 3.09 ERA)
Jr. RHP Robert Phares (1-1, 5.06 ERA)

Another change that Bianco made was putting Stuyverson at 2nd and Ferguson at short. Also, he put Jordan Henry 9th in the batting order. The results of the Tuesday line-up against Southern: two runs.

Here is how I would organize the line-up:
Miller, F. Smith (DH), Overbeck, Power, M. Smith, Guerrero, Ferguson, Basham, Henry

As far as other numbers are concerned:
Rebels versus Tide
BA: .310 vs .299
Doubles: 57 vs 34
HRs: 26 vs 28
Balks: 3 vs 13
Fielding Percentage: .967 vs .947

What to watch for: Drew Pomeranz
After the Freshman has put up really impressive numbers in relief, he gets his first crack at the weekend rotation. He consistently brings heat up into the 93-95 range, and he throws a nasty curve that drops twelve-to-six like he's jumping through time zones. How will Pom respond?

Alabama just took the series at home from Vandy, and they are on a 4 win streak. The Rebels choked away a series with Florida, and they are on a 3 game skid.

My prediction:
F: 6-1 Rebels
S: 8-3 Rebels
Su: 3-9 Tide

The Rebels get back on track with a new rotation and line-up.