clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

"Getting Pretty Quiet..."

Cody Overbeck just launched one over the left field wall to increase Ole Miss count to 5-1 in the top of the 9th. So, barring some disaster (not unheard of, Rebel fans), Mike and the gang should take game 2 after dropping the Friday night contest 6-2. Drew Pomeranz guided Ole Miss through six scoreless innings.

Have you noticed how nice our margin of victory has been on Saturdays since Drew Pomeranz took over. 8-0 over Vanderbilt and 7-1 over LSU. This weekend, we are at 5-1 in the bottom of the ninth, which looks like it might hold up.

This all sets up the rubber-match that this blogger is willing to call the biggest start of Cody Satterwhite's career. Taking two from one of the top teams in the conference in Columbia means that our "hot streak" is still alive. Losers of four of their last five can scarcely be called "hot." And we need a little heat. Little should you forget that we have two monumental visits to Lexington and Athens left in the schedule.

By the way, Scott Bittle just finished the game off with a strike out to get the save in a 5-2 win. The Rebels are now 25-14 on the season, 10-7 in the Southeastern Conference. There are seventeen games remaining in the regular season, winning the SEC Tournament strikes up four more victories, and, please Rebels, take at least two in a Regional. Which means that in order to get to forty wins, a benchmark short of which the Rebels should fall will elicit justifiable disappointment and diatribe from LowAndOutside.

Expecting an SEC Tournament Championship is what they do at Scout. Expecting at least two wins in the SEC Tournament and two more in regional play is what you're going to get if you unwisely submit yourself to my written opinions. So, we need to win at least 11 of 17 in order to avoid what I would otherwise be calling the Great Diamond Disaster of 2008. Four mid-week opponents remain (Murray State, Arkansas State, Jackson State, and a rescheduled Memphis game). Our Tuesday Night Heroes will fulfill the wishes of the Dark One and lose at least one more otherwise inexplicable weeknight game. Additionally, we have to get eight wins out of four SEC series (pedestrian Arkansas in Oxford, scalding-hot Georgia in Athens, quite bad Auburn in Oxford, and winning lots of games except the three they dropped in Athens last weekend Kentucky in Lexington).

This is all excepting tomorrow's game in Columbia, where South Carolina will be saving their lowest-ERA starter for Cody Satterwhite who is, you guessed it, our highest-ERA starter.

Here's the thing: the SEC West is sucking so bad that the only way it can make itself feel better is for each team to remind itself how unbelievably terrible Mississippi State is. Losing the SEC West this season will be almost as embarrassing as allowing thirty-five runs in a weekend to a team that hasn't swept an SEC road series since U2 was a musical group (as opposed to something between the United Nations and the Partridge Family).

Not winning the West is part of this disaster scenario. While I expect to avoid that dubious fate, I would obviously appreciate something more. Something to which I will not submit is being the #3 seed in a Southern Miss Regional.

Not happening, Mike.