Rebel baseball goes for a series win against South Carolina

Dylan DeLucia pitched more than seven incredibly clutch innings on Thursday, and the Rebel bats struck early and often to lead to a 9-1 win over South Carolina.

Ole Miss (22-12, 5-8 SEC) now has a chance to close out a series win on the road in Columbia tonight, and it would also make it the third straight SEC road series for this team to win (which is incredibly weird to do that and then get swept at home twice).

TJ McCants and Reagan Burford both homered in Thursday’s game while DeLucia put in a season high 7.2 innings with only one run allowed. Matt Parenteau pitched the final 1.1 innings to close out the game, so the Rebels only using two pitchers to get game one of this series completed is MASSIVE compared to previous SEC outings.

On Friday, veteran pitcher Derek Diamond will take the bump for Ole Miss looking to improve on his 3-2 record with a 5.91 ERA. Diamond has not been able to log a quality start in SEC play this year, but last weekend’s 4.1 IP and only two runs allowed was a vast improvement from other efforts.

Sakerlina will counter with RHP Noah Hall who has posted a 1-4 record with a 5.40 ERA. Hall has been hot of late, however, going seven innings and only allowing one run in both of his last two starts against Georgia and Missouri. This is a kid who can go 100+ pitches if needed to keep his squad in the game, so the Rebels will need to work deep counts and find some timely hitting to get a W on Friday.

Here’s how head coach Mike Bianco will send the Rebels out on Friday night.

Fingers forever crossed that Peyton Chatagnier and Hayden Dunhurst heat up. If those two can pick up even 30 points on their batting average the next month, it will go a long way to making this offense really blast through the competition again.