The ever-dogged baseball reporter at Rivals, Chase Parham, is reporting the defensive line-up for this Friday's game at TCU.
There's no batting order just yet, but we'll go ahead and throw out a couple options considering speed, power and experience at Ole Miss.
Here's the defensive line-up:
C. Will Allen
1B Preston Overbey
2B Alex Yarbrough
3B Andrew Mistone
SS Blake Newell
LF Tanner Mathis
CF Austin Bousfield
RF Will Jamison
DH Matt Snyder
P Wahl
Obviously, Bobby Wahl will not be included in the batting order since we're DH'ing Snyder.
I can see a couple scenarios playing out with the batting order, and there's not a ton of variation but really just a preference of where Bianco would want newcomers to hit.
I'd imagine Bianco is going to want a couple speedsters to start things off: Mathis, Bousfield, Newalu or Jamison. Then they toss in a solid power combo at 3-4: Snyder, Overbey or Yarbrough. Then 5-9 would need to be a blend of contact hitters and table setters for the top of the order: Allen, Mistone and three from the aforementioned options.
The following order is experience heavy at the front and works it way to our younger players (which is what I would like to see):
1.) Mathis
2.) Newalu
3.) Yarbrough
4.) Snyder
5.) Overbey
6.) Allen
7.) Mistone
8.) Bousfield
9.) Jamison
There's also a possibility that Bianco will throw his new guys into the fire, and we could see a freshman lead off the 2012 campaign. And one of the great things about college baseball is the ability to see what works over dozens of games. Here's another way our order could shake out:
1.) Bousfield
2.) Mathis
3.) Yarbrough
4.) Snyder
5.) Overbuy
6.) Newalu
7.) Mistone
8.) Jamison
9.) Allen
I'm thinking of some of the orders Bianco had in the past where he dropped Justin Brashear to 9th in the order when putting Allen there. He ended up being a productive hitter deep in the order, so we may be looking for lightning to strike again for the Rebels.
Enough with the minutiae, it's time for some damn baseball. We'll have a weekend thread up for all your comments, complaints and beverages of choice. Enjoy guys.