No. 6 Diamond Rebs Open Conference with Rocky Top

Will Golsan. Photo by Steven Gagliano

No. 6 Ole Miss Rebel baseball team steps into conference action this weekend as they play host to the Tennessee Volunteers at Swayze.

Ole Miss (17-1) enters conference play tied with Auburn for the best record and win percentage (.944) in college baseball. The Rebels are one of four one-loss teams remaining in the country. The pitching staff brings the nation’s No. 1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.26) into SEC play, having struck out 183 and walked 43 through 18 games this season.
At the plate, the Rebels have had a knack for finding the outfield gaps this year, tallying 43 doubles so far, good for No. 10 in the nation.
Senior captain Will Golsan hasn’t had the batting average mark he’d like early in the season, but he’s finding ways to contribute. In addition to great defensive play in CF, Golsan is No. 4 in the NCAA, and with four sacrifice flies on the year, he’s tied for 1st in the SEC.
Tennessee leaves Rocky Top with a 12-6 record at the start of SEC play. The Vols got off to a rough start to open the season but have since won four straight, including a road sweep at Cincinnati.
The Vols’ offense boasts three players batting over .300 — Wyatt Stapp, Andre Lipcius and Benito Santiago. Santiago leads the UT offense hitting .394 with 10 doubles on the season— 1st in the SEC, tied for 1st in NCAA. Lipcius is tied for the team lead with three home runs and boasts a team-best 19 RBIs.
Ole Miss and Tennessee have met on the diamond 85 times. The Rebels hold a 47-37 advantage in the all-time series. Tennessee played host to Ole Miss in the 2016 series opener, where the Rebels won the series by taking two of three. 
The probable pitching matchup for this weekend will be LHP Garrett Crochet (tonight), RHP Garrett Stallings (Saturday) and RHP Will Neely (Sunday) for the Volunteers. Coach Mike Bianco will send LHP Ryan Rolison (tonight), RHP Brady Fiegl (Saturday) and RHP James McArthur (Sunday) to the mound for the Rebels.
First pitch for tonight’s series opener is set for 7 p.m. followed by games at 1:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Fans can listen to all the action on Ole Miss Radio Network or watch the games on the SEC Network +.
Be sure to follow HottyToddy.com for all the latest on Ole Miss baseball.

Adam Brown is the sports editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.