Ole Miss Baseball Holds Annual Media Day

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

Ole Miss baseball returns to the diamond in two weeks to open the 2022 season and head coach Mike Bianco met with the media on Friday to discuss the upcoming season.

Ole Miss returns a powerful offensive lineup at the plate with the team captain Tim Elko, Kevin Graham, Justin Bench, TJ McCants and Jacob Gonzalez.

“An uneventful fall where the offense that was the No. 1 offense in the Southeastern Conference needed to swing well as we returned basically the entire offense from last year,” Bianco said. “Even with Tim being sidelined with the ACL rehab, the offense just did not miss a step and continued to swing well. In turn, it made it tough on the pitching staff that was trying to make a name for themselves, so we swung it better than I probably would have imagined that we would have swung it.”

Bianco added that Elko is ready to start the season.

“Elko has been back and been released to go full speed, 100 percent out there. I was even a little shocked a few weeks ago. I pulled Tim to the side and watched him during an early work portion of our practice where it is just defense and watched him move around first base,” Bianco said. “Easy to look at him and not realize the injury he had and surgery and work and effort put in, as well as Josh Porter, our trainer, to put him back on the field. Man, he looks amazing out there.”

This fall the Rebels played a total of 268 innings.

“Divide it by nine innings, that is almost 30 games, 29.7 games to be exact. So, if you played 30 games, and we hit 51 home runs. That’s a lot of homers,” Bianco said. “We stole 77 bases, so a lot of offense. That’s nice. The problem is that you are on the other side of the ball as well. From the pitching standpoint, we probably did not pitch it as well as I would hope.”

On the mound, the Rebels will have Derek Diamond as the opening day starter against Charleston Southern.

“Diamond led the pitching staff with the least amount of runs given up, but the guy with the lowest ERA was a grad transfer in John Gaddis from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi,” Bianco said. “Had a terrific fall.”

On the opening weekend fans will see a starting lineup of Kevin Graham in left, McCants or Bench in center, Hayden Leatherwood or Kemp Alderman in right, Bench or Reagan Buford at third, Jacob Gonzalez short, Peyton Chatagnier at second, Elko at first and Hayden Dunhurst behind the plate. Ben Van Cleve and Calvin Harris are up for the DH spot according to Bianco.

This season, fans are ready to get back into Swayze as the ticket office has sold over 8,000 season tickets.

“I am super excited to announce that we have broken another season ticket record,” Bianco said. “Thanks to the marketing and communications team, as well as the ticketing office. Over 8,000 season tickets is incredible. We have a great fan base that continues to buy tickets and show up to the games to support like no other program. It makes for the greatest atmosphere in college baseball.”

Ole Miss returns to the diamond of Swayze Field on February 18 in a three-game slate against Charleston Southern. The first pitch is set for 3 p.m.