Baseball
No. 9 Ole Miss Baseball Welcomes Alabama to Swayze
By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com
No. 9 Ole Miss returns home to Swayze Field, hosting the Alabama Crimson Tide in an SEC weekend tilt. The first pitch is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. and can be streamed on SEC Network +.
Ole Miss (19-9, 4-5 SEC) looks to bounce back from a hard fought 10-7 loss to in-state rival Southern Miss on Tuesday night in Pearl. Prior to Tuesday’s game, Ole Miss picked up a series win at Kentucky, earning a tight win on Friday before blowing out the Wildcats 10-1 on Sunday.
Tim Elko leads Ole Miss with a .333 batting average in conference play. Four of Elko’s 11 home runs and 13 of the slugger’s 37 RBI’s have come against conference opposition.
Alabama rolls into Oxford with an 18-12 overall record and a 4-5 mark in SEC play on the season. The Crimson Tide defeated Samford 10-1 on Tuesday night and took the back end of the series against Texas A&M over the weekend.
This season, Alabama is led at the dish by senior Tommy Seidl with a .333 batting average with 35 hits, nine doubles, a home run and 16 RBIs. His teammate Zane Denton leads the way in home runs with seven, and 10 doubles.
As a club, the Crimson Tide is hitting at a .292 average, while opponents have a .241 average on the season. Alabama’s hurlers have allowed 36 home runs.
The probable pitching matchups for this weekend will showcase the arms of right-hander Garrett McMillan (Friday), RHP Jacob McNairy (Saturday) and southpaw Grayson Hitt (Sunday). Coach Mike Bianco will send southpaw Hunter Elliott to the hill on Friday. The Rebels are TBA on the mound for Saturday and Sunday.
Ole Miss and Alabama have met on the diamond 367 times. The Rebels have won six of the last seven and 10 of the last 12 meetings between the two schools. Ole Miss has not lost a series to the Crimson Tide since 2016.
Game times for this weekends SEC West tilt are Friday (6:30 p.m.), Saturday (2 p.m.) both games can be streamed on SEC Network+. On Sunday, Ole Miss and Alabama will close the series at 2 p.m. on SEC Network.