ETA: Happy Sunday! Let's get the sweep, Rebs!
And so the sounds of spring have begun to fall upon the beautiful ears of the people of Oxford and Ole Miss – the muted ping of a composite bat, the roars from right field and the sultry tones of Glen Waddle on the PA.
Ole Miss will play its first weekend home series beginning today against UNC–Wilmington (I think their mascot is a egret or sea falcon or some shit).
Your lively Rebel baseball banter can be posted here all weekend as usual. Myself and the missus will be in our seats along the third base line if you so choose to stop by (remember, bring me a red cup). Projected starters after the jump.
First off, if you're going to be in Oxford for this series, here's a link to the weather.
I'm incredibly interested to see how the Rebel hitters fare against LHP this weekend. I can't imagine these starters are all-world caliber, but it ought to be a good indication as to what we can expect to see later in the season.
FRIDAY, 3:00 P.M.
UNC-W - Mat Batts, So., LHP
OM - Bobby Wahl, So., RHP
B-Dub got his first Friday start last week and showed excellent control and leadership against TCU. Let's see if he can go out and flat dominate a less than challenging team. Batts actually had a great first outing against Ohio last Friday going 7 innings and only allowing 1 run. Hopefully, we can hit better than Ohio...
SATURDAY, 3:00 P.M.
UNC-W - Tyler DeLoach, Jr., LHP
OM - RJ Hively, Sr., RHP
Hively got a little roughed up in his first outing against TCU, but he was also pitching on a day he would normally be off. If Hively struggles again, I don't think it would be too early to start looking at moving Mayers to Saturday or possibly revamping what pitches are being called for him. DeLoach went 5 innings and gave up 3 runs against Ohio last Saturday. Hard to draw much from one start, but there it is.
SUNDAY, NOON
UNC-W - Jordan Ramsey, Fr., RHP
OM - Mike Mayers, So., RHP
Go to early church, Saturday mass or whatever you have to do to be in OU Stadium Swayze Field by the time Mayers is warming up. He'll be warming up to the Halloween theme song due to his name, but it will bring back fond memories at least for myself of the days of Will Kline and Rebel baseball glory. For UNC-W, Ramsey was a 28th round draft pick out of high school by the Royals. So...there's that. He did throw four scoreless innings against Ohio.
There hasn't been any mention of line-up changes for this weekend, but I would expect to see more Senquez Golson than we did against TCU. Probably just generally more freshmen will see the field if things go as planned. Right field folks, get your harassing comments ready and ice down your beers, it's baseball season in Oxford.