Plenty of times, we’ve seen one team look like garbage on Friday night, only to come back and win the series over the rest of the weekend. Plenty of times after Friday night, we’ve thought “this really ought to be a sweep”, but it doesn’t often play out that way (this is all pertaining to conference games).
But then, the team that looks terrible on Friday night only to come back and win the next two is usually pretty good or very good themselves. I don’t know that Ole Miss is that.
They played a terrible defensive game last night… they probably don’t make four errors today, but I think they are pretty bad defensively overall. Very little range in their IF, and not much in their OF either. Their RF has a good arm, but doesn’t seem to read the ball very well in their air.
I doubt any of that improves much today.
They can hit though. Enough to give us some real headaches. I hate the term “poor man’s version of ____” But that fits for Ole Miss. They look very similar to us in terms of their strengths and weaknesses… but they don’t hit as well as we do and they are, I think, weaker defensively than we are.
I don’t think you have to have any real insight to know that a lot of runs are going to get scored today. I doubt it’ll be anywhere near as easy as it was last night (remember, we outscored them 17-3 after their 1st inning). This is the weakest team we are going to play the rest of the way. Have to take care of business.
Lastly, it’s fitting that we are honoring the 2004 team today. That group got blown out on Saturday in Baton Rouge to fall to 5-9 in the league. They won the Sunday game and came back to Athens at 6-9. I’m 99% sure that we played Ole Miss here in our next series. I’m 100% sure that we swept Ole Miss. That team went on a Heater (with a capital “H”), hosted that epic regional, etc. Went all the way to Omaha.
I don’t believe that we’ve swept Ole Miss since then. They swept us in 2006 and I think we got 2 in 2008. We got 2 from them in 2012. I don’t think we won a series against them since then. So… it is fitting that the 2004 group gets recognized today.
(Also very hard to believe it’s been 20 years, but that’s a different topic)
But then, the team that looks terrible on Friday night only to come back and win the next two is usually pretty good or very good themselves. I don’t know that Ole Miss is that.
They played a terrible defensive game last night… they probably don’t make four errors today, but I think they are pretty bad defensively overall. Very little range in their IF, and not much in their OF either. Their RF has a good arm, but doesn’t seem to read the ball very well in their air.
I doubt any of that improves much today.
They can hit though. Enough to give us some real headaches. I hate the term “poor man’s version of ____” But that fits for Ole Miss. They look very similar to us in terms of their strengths and weaknesses… but they don’t hit as well as we do and they are, I think, weaker defensively than we are.
I don’t think you have to have any real insight to know that a lot of runs are going to get scored today. I doubt it’ll be anywhere near as easy as it was last night (remember, we outscored them 17-3 after their 1st inning). This is the weakest team we are going to play the rest of the way. Have to take care of business.
Lastly, it’s fitting that we are honoring the 2004 team today. That group got blown out on Saturday in Baton Rouge to fall to 5-9 in the league. They won the Sunday game and came back to Athens at 6-9. I’m 99% sure that we played Ole Miss here in our next series. I’m 100% sure that we swept Ole Miss. That team went on a Heater (with a capital “H”), hosted that epic regional, etc. Went all the way to Omaha.
I don’t believe that we’ve swept Ole Miss since then. They swept us in 2006 and I think we got 2 in 2008. We got 2 from them in 2012. I don’t think we won a series against them since then. So… it is fitting that the 2004 group gets recognized today.
(Also very hard to believe it’s been 20 years, but that’s a different topic)
