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Coming off of a deflating midweek loss to the Memphis Tigers - who, as it turns out, aren't particularly bad at baseball - the Rebels look to rebound against the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans this weekend at Swayze Field. Surprising a lot of us, the Rebels have gotten off to a very good start at 11-2, and have jumped into the polls at as high as No. 15 nationally. Now, we don't think this is the fifteenth best team in college baseball or anything, but you can't really argue against results. Hopefully we can see more of the same this week.
Even if we do though, we aren't too sure it will reveal much of anything. UALR is not the same caliber opponent as the Rebels have played during much of the rest of this season. I do believe that UCF has a solid team and will win more than their share of games in the zombie Big East, as will Georgia State in the Sun Belt. That being said, I am holding judgement on what this Rebel baseball team actually has until after next weekends trip to South Carolina, the top team in college baseball right now.
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So far, both the Rebel pitching staff and baserunning have been better than a lot of us expected. The Rebs come into the weekend posting a team ERA of 1.92 and the Rebels are stealing bases at a 80+% clip. Both are certainly causes for optimism moving forward. The team batting average is .319 with a .397 OBP%, however, the Rebels have only driven in 65 runs, or five runs per game. Stranding baserunners is exactly how this team lost to Memphis earlier this week, and will surely cause for a few more frustrating losses on the year.
Looking at the Trojans, UALR hasn't really beaten anyone to speak of. They are 8-2 on the year, but only have sweeps of Creighton and Louisiana Tech to hang their hats on. They lost to "Bradley" twice, whoever he is. Their team's offense is particularly anemic after Justin Steelmon (.334 Avg) and Tanner Rockwell (2 HR, 12 RBI), as they're batting a collective .235 which, hey, is above the Mendoza Line.*
Predictions? The Rebels sweep the Trojans, Red Cup wins two races, Blue Cup steals one, and Yellow Cup continues to be a damn embarrassment to the time-honored sport of cup racing. Fit4LifeLLC (who, again, mined numbers for us because he's nice) even expects the Rebs to "kick the shit out of" UALR with "beer showers galore." I'd like that too, but I'll also take a narrow sweep as well. Just win.
UALR Individual Hitting Statistics
|
Name |
Avg |
HR |
RBI |
SLG% |
OBP% |
SB/ATT |
SO/BB |
|
Justin Steelmon |
344 |
0 |
4 |
531 |
500 |
0/1 |
10/9/ |
|
Ben Crumpton |
325 |
0 |
4 |
450 |
438 |
8/9/ |
8/7/ |
|
Drew Merten |
318 |
0 |
5 |
409 |
483 |
0/1 |
8/4/ |
|
Tanner Rockwell |
303 |
2 |
12 |
515 |
366 |
0/0 |
6/4/ |
|
Mitchell Scheuler |
250 |
1 |
10 |
429 |
382 |
1/1/ |
8/4/ |
Team Statistics
|
Average |
HR |
RBI |
OBP% |
SLG% |
SB/ATT |
SO/BB |
|
235 |
6 |
51 |
359 |
357 |
15/21 |
77/44 |
Ole Miss Individual Hitting Statistics
|
Name |
Avg |
HR |
RBI |
SLG% |
OBP% |
SB/ATT |
SO/BB |
|
Austin Bousfield |
429 |
2 |
10 |
661 |
484 |
6/6/ |
4/5/ |
|
Will Allen |
360 |
3 |
19 |
620 |
386 |
0/0 |
6/2/ |
|
JB Woodman |
348 |
0 |
2 |
348 |
423 |
2/3/ |
7/2/ |
|
Preston Overbey |
340 |
2 |
6 |
553 |
360 |
0/1 |
9/2/ |
|
Sikes Orvis |
325 |
2 |
7 |
525 |
460 |
0/0 |
10/9/ |
|
Austin Anderson |
300 |
0 |
4 |
340 |
410 |
4/4/ |
3/7/ |
Team Statistics
|
Avg |
HR |
RBI |
SLG% |
OBP% |
SB/ATT |
SO/BB |
|
319 |
10 |
65 |
442 |
397 |
25/30 |
71/48 |
Pitching matchups
- Game 1 - 6:30 PM
RHP Chris Ellis (2-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. LHP Travis McDonald (2-0, 1.72 ERA) - Game 2 - 4:00 PM
LHP Christian Trent (2-0, 2.66 ERA) vs. RHP Ethan Schlechte** (1-0, 4.61 ERA) - Game 3 - 1:30 PM
RHP Sam Smith (2-0, 1.65 ERA) vs. RHP Cameron Allen (1-0, 2.25 ERA)
*Hint: This is never something you should never have to say about an entire team.
**This means "bad" in German.