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Ole Miss Rebels vs. Lipscomb Bisons Baseball Preview and Open Thread

Game times, Lipscomb's likely starting pitchers, and more.

By The Ghost of Jay Cutler
Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

[As always, give BeardedGinger a beer or ten if you see him this weekend to thank him for his help in covering Ole Miss baseball.]

Can the Rebels start the first month of the 2013 Ole Miss baseball season off with four consecutive sweeps? They'll go for that this weekend at Swayze Field as they take on the Lipscomb Bisons. The first game is tonight at 6:30 PM, with Saturday and Sunday's games starting at 1:30 PM.

Lipscomb's likely starters for this weekend are:

  • RHP Josh Cotham, SR(RS) - Currently 1-1 over three starts this season. Through 14.1 innings, Cotham has allowed 20 hits while allowing 11 walks and striking out 12. He has allowed 17 runs in those 14.1 innings, 14 of which are earned. Cotham currently posts an 8.79 ERA in his second season as a starter. Last season Cotham made 13 starts going 5-5 with a 2.56 ERA.
  • RHP Davey Hackett, SR(RS) - Davey is also a right handed redshirt senior and currently posts a 1-2 record in 3 starts. Hackett has allowed 22 hits, walked 9, and struck out 5 in 12.2 innings pitched. Hackett has allowed 17 runs, but only 8 of those are earned. Hackett currently has a 5.68 ERA. Last season, Hackett made 14 appearances (2 starts) and went 1-1 with a 4.01 ERA. He redshirted in 2011.
  • RHP Will Blalock, SO - Interestingly, the numbers suggest that the redshirt sophomore is the best of the three starting pitchers Lipscomb is likely to use this weekend. He is currently 0-1 over three starts (one being a midweek start) this season. Through 17 innings, Blalock has allowed 13 hits, walked 12, while striking out 16. He has only allowed five earned runs this season and currently posts an ERA of 2.65. Last season, Blalock made 11 appearances (8 starts) and went 1-2 with a 4.32 ERA.

Team Pitching Ranks in Conference (Lipscomb is one of 10 teams in the Atlantic Sun Conference):

  • 7th in ERA (5.12)
  • 6th in opposing batting average (.275)
  • 3rd in strike outs (87)
  • T-7th in hits allowed (117)
  • T-Last in runs allowed (94)
  • Last in walks allowed (76)
  • T-Last in HRs allowed (9)

Lipscomb, to put it nicely, is not a good baseball team. They are 6-7 on the year, and towards the bottom of the A-Sun conference in every major statistical category. The Rebel pitching staff should have no trouble keeping runs from crossing the plate, and the Rebel bats should be more than serviceable against the Bison pitchers.

The last time the Rebels faced Lipscomb was in 2011, when they swept the Bisons at Swayze. Hopefully this weekend will afford us similar results, and reasonably one could expect it to.