Ole Miss baseball sweeps Charleston Southern in season opening series

It’s early on, but the Rebs are rolling.

Ole Miss closed out their series sweep over Charleston Southern on Sunday, after another impressive offensive outing. In their three games, Ole Miss outscored the Bucs 32-6.

Game One

The first game of the series seemed more like a warm-up for the Rebels ahead of what was to come in the final two games. Ole Miss easily handled Charleston Southern 9-3 through nine innings. Derek Diamond earned his first start of the season in the series opener and was nearly flawless through the first three innings on Friday night. He only allowed for two runs on two hits with eight strikeouts through five innings.

Tim Elko was the storyline of game one, hitting yet another home run, this time with two ACLs.

The Rebs looked like a well-oiled machine scoring in five of the first six innings while logging seven hits, six walks, five hit-by-pitches, and three stolen bases. Ole Miss reached base 18 times, in a game that never even felt close.

Game Two

In game two, Ole Miss mercy-ruled Charleston Southern 11-1, which resulted in the game being called in only the seventh inning.

The left-handed pitcher and recent Ole Miss transfer John Gaddis made his debut for the Rebels on Saturday. The transfer from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi walked the very first batter of the game, before pitching four innings, allowing one run on three hits with three strikeouts and two walks.

Tim Elko had two hits in game two- a single in the first and another home run in the fourth. He was not alone with six more players getting one hit each in this game- Jacob Gonzalez, Peyton Chatagnier, and Ben Van Cleve with doubles; while McCants and Hayden Dunhurst each had a single. Hayden Leatherwood also had a homer of his own, despite not playing in game one.

Catcher Hayden Dunhurst left the game early after tweaking his hamstring while rounding the bases. He is rumored to be out until next weekend’s series with a sore hamstring.

Game Three

Drew McDaniel earned the start on the mound in his same Sunday spot as last season. He earned the win after only allowing one run through 3.2 innings, and added four strikeouts to his day. Following him were Hunter Elliot, Dylan DeLucia, and Jack Dougherty.

While McDaniel’s 2022 debut was impressive, it was Jack Dougherty’s day that stole the show. The sophomore from Collierville, TN proved his dominance on the mound striking out five in his two innings pitched.

Offensively, the Rebel bats stayed hot with 12 hits and 12 runs scored. It was enough to bring the run-rule in effect for the second straight game.

The Rebs will look to keep the momentum going when they welcome Arkansas State to Oxford for their first-midweek matchup of the season on Tuesday at 4pm CT.

The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.

Following the midweek game, Ole Miss will turn their attention to another series at home against Virginia Commonwealth University.