A day early for this, you may wonder? No, and shame on you for not paying attention. Ole Miss plays Georgia tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday, with tonight's gaming taking place as a part of ESPNU's college baseball coverage. Yes, that means the Rebs will be nationally televised and, no, you haven't an excuse to miss it. Not even Community. I'm serious.
Georgia has been a bit of a disappointment thus far on the season, being the yin to Kentucky's surprising yang in the SEC East with a 5-7 SEC record and a 20-13 overall record.
Georgia's got some decent arms on their roster, and they're going to mix it up some against the Rebs this series.
Righty Michael Palazzone (0-4, 5.68 ERA, 31 K, 8 BB) will face our Rebs tonight matching up against Bobby Wahl. I'm sure ESPNU's thrilled that Georgia decided to put one of their, let's say, "more underwhelming" arms on the bump during the nationally televised affiar.
Sophomore lefty Alex Wood (4-1, 2.45 ERA, 55 k, 8 BB), who typically pitches to open the series, is who they'll trot out to match up against RJ Hively on Friday night, in what is reasonably expected to be a low scoring affair.
Their Saturday afternoon pitcher will be reliever Blake Dieterich (1.82 ERA, 19 k, 8 BB) in his first start on the year. He'll face Mike Mayers and, hopefully, his creepy mask wearing friend.
While they've got some reliable arms, Georgia hasn't played so well offensively, with only three players batting with a .300 average or better. Infielder Curt Powell leads the Bulldogs with a .324 average, 26 runs, and a .427 on base percentage. Shortstop Kyle Farmer leads the team with 19 RBI and 13 doubles. Hunter Cole, a freshman outfielder, leads Georgia in home runs with six, and is top three-ish in just about every other significant offensive category. Overall, their team batting average is .279 and they've got 164 runs, which is good for 119th and 143rd in the NCAAs, respectively.
By national standards, they're a mediocre team offensively. By SEC standards, they're borderline bad.
But, the series is in Athens and our club's wildly inconsistent so who in the hell knows what to expect? Let's say the Rebs win 2-of-3, but really any series outcome wouldn't be a surprise.
The series will begin in Athens tonight at 6:30 (again, on ESPNU), will continue tomorrow at 6:00, and will conclude at noon on Saturday. Open thread's below.
