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The final mid-week game of the 2018 season is here, and it’s relegated to the crown jewel of the state of Arkansas — Jonesboro.
Fayetteville? Nope, never heard of her.
For the the No. 5 Rebels (39-13, 16-11), Tuesday’s evening contest against the Red Wolves (say it real fast and it sounds like Rebels imo) marks the first opportunity to get to 40 wins on the season. Arkansas State has struggled this year posting a 18-29 (9-18) record, standing at 11th in the Sun Belt.
Ole Miss squashed ASU in its last meeting 10-3, and we’d be wrong to not assume something similar would happen tonight. It is on the road, so anything can happen no doubt about it. There’s probably several of you worried about a potential RPI hit if there was a loss tonight, but our fearless leader Jeff “50 Shades of” Gray calculated this morning that an L on the road tonight would only drop the Rebels one spot in RPI.
Jordan Fowler will take his spotless win-loss record on the bump and try to improve on his 4.08 earned run average. Fowler has struck out 25 batters in 28.2 innings of work this season and has a solid .239 batting average against.
ASU will need every bit of home field advantage to balance out some stark disparities in these two teams. The Red Wolves are batting in the .250 range with an ERA nearing 6.00, which is not good when you’re welcoming in a team that hits at a .304 clip. Starting pitcher Zachary Patterson is not an outlier in the pitching rotation sporting a 7.50 ERA on a winless season as he starts Tuesday.
Most importantly, voting for the CSpire Ferriss Trophy is now open and our extremely talented, handsome, wiry and quality at-bat son Ryan Olenek needs your votes. Log on to CSpire and take our good man over the top.
First pitch: 6:30 p.m. CT
TV: NONE
Online streaming: Red Wolves Digital Network ($)
Game-time weather: 90°, partly cloudy, 20% chance of rain
Projected pitchers
Ole Miss: LHP Jordan Fowler (5-0, 4.08 ERA)
ASU: RHP Zachary Patterson (0-3, 7.50 ERA)