VS
Tuesday in Oxford @ 3:00 p.m.
The Rebels picked up some steam after a deflating loss to open the season on Friday night. After the weekend, the Rebels are 2-1 and on a two game win streak. As of today, our RPI is 128. Throughout the season, it will climb more than 100 spots, but that opening game loss to such an inferior opponent will continue to sting.Arkansas State had a great opening weekend at home against Southern Illinois and are sitting pretty at 2-0 (their third game was cancelled due to weather). Their RPI is currently 72.
In 2009, the teams played twice with Ole Miss prevailing 11-5 in Oxford and 7-1 in Jonesboro. Ole Miss leads the overall series 77-21.
On the mound: Ole Miss will put southpaw Matt Tracy on the hill. Tracy had a great outing on Friday by going 3.2 innings and only surrendering two hits and no runs. Arkansas State will use their Sunday starter (due to the rainout) Jacob Lee. Lee was 2-5 last season with a 5.32 ERA. He pitched 47.1 innings striking out 42, walking 35, and allowing 42 hits. Most of his innings were against Sun Belt opponents.
Who to watch: For the Red Wolves, watch for Todd Baumgartner and Murray Watts, both juniors, as they were named to the preseason All-Sun Belt team. Baumgartner is an outfielder and Watts was selected based on his hitting ability. On opening weekend, Baumgartner went 4-8 with 1 RBI and Watts went 1-7 with no RBIs. For the Rebels, look out for hot hitting David Phillips and the power hitting of Matt Smith and Matt Snyder.
Prediction: The Rebels will continue their offensive onslaught and strong pitching for a decisive 8-2 victory.
Thoughts?
Come back at three and chat it up...