No. 1 Ole Miss Heads to Hammond to Take on Southeastern Louisiana

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

No. 1 Ole Miss heads down to Hammond, Louisiana, on Tuesday to take the diamond against Southeastern Louisiana. The first pitch is set for 6 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.

Ole Miss (13-2) comes into the game after taking the series from Oral Roberts University over the weekend and climbing up to No. 1 in the nation in D1Baseball Top 25 Poll on Monday.

The Rebels dominated the Golden Eagles 16-2 in the series opener, spearheaded by a seven-RBI performance from Tim Elko, who hammered his second grand slam of the season. Elko is the second Rebel to drive in seven runs in a game this season, joining Kevin Graham.

Ole Miss has scored 151 runs this season, a program-record through the first 15 games of the season.

Coach Mike Bianco’s club ranks in the top-20 in several statistical categories, including walks (16th), earned run average (13th), home runs (11th), on-base percentage (10th), runs (11th), slugging percentage (7th) and strikeouts per nine innings (7th).

Southeastern Louisiana comes into the game with an 7-9 overall record. This past weekend Southeastern Louisiana took the series from Tennessee Tech before dropping Sunday’s game 4-18.

This season, the Loins are led at the dish by Evan Keller with a .268 batting average with a home run, three doubles and eight RBIs.

The probable pitching matchup will showcase right-hander Jack Washburn for the Rebels. This season, Washburn is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA he has recorded 16 strikeouts and nine walks. Southeastern Louisiana will give the ball to southpaw Adam Guth who is 0-0 on the young season with a 4.05 ERA. Guth has retired seven batters by strikeout and allowed five walks.

When Ole Miss and Southeastern Louisiana step between the chalk it will be for the first time since 2014, also the last trip to Hammond for the Rebels. Ole Miss has won each of the last 11 meetings with the Lions.