Ole Miss Baseball will face Auburn on the road in a three-game set with an appearance at the College World Series on the line. ESPN2 will broadcast game one of the super regional contest Friday at 7 p.m., ESPN will air game two on Saturday at 4 p.m. and the time of game three (if necessary) will be announced.
Auburn plays in Plainsman Park. The stadium seats 6,300 people. It is 315 feet to left, 500 to center and 331 to right. Notably, the park features a 37-foot left field wall.
The Rebels did not play fellow SEC team Auburn in the regular season. The Tigers went 42-20 overall and 17-13 in conference play. They received the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and, after losing their first regional game, had to go 4-0 to advance to the super regionals.
Auburn lost their regional opener to Milwaukee, 13-8, then defeated NC State 17-13, UCF 9-3 and Milwaukee twice, 8-1 and 8-3, to keep the season alive.
Hunter Elliott will start for the Rebels on Friday. While the starters for games two and three have not been announced, Taylor Rabe and Cade Townsend will likely fill out the rotation.
The Tigers have an elite pitching staff. They boast the best team earned run average in the SEC and are the only team in the conference to have a sub-4.00 ERA (3.62). They are also second in fewest walks with 166 and eighth in strikeouts with 623.
Ole Miss has often out-pitched teams to victory this season, but both teams’ biggest strengths will look to out-duel the other and go toe-to-toe this weekend.
Andrea Alvarez will start for the Tigers in game one. He has the third most starts on the team this season. In his 15 starts, he has 79 ⅓ innings pitched, a 3.52 ERA, 30 walks and 103 strikeouts. He threw 5 ⅔ innings against NC State and surrendered four earned runs (nine total) on eight hits.
Jake Marciano or Alex Petrovic will likely pitch games two and three. Marciano has 108 strikeouts this season in 86.2 innings.
Marciano started game one of the regional last week and gave up six earned runs on eight hits in just one inning. He also threw four innings in the regional-clinching game on Monday, June 1. Jackson Sanders finished that game with five innings of three-hit baseball.
Petrovic pitched six innings and allowed just two earned runs against UCF on Sunday, May 31. He leads the team in innings pitched with 87 ⅓ and has the lowest ERA among qualified pitchers with a 3.19.
LJ Cormier has 47 innings out of the bullpen with a 2.49 ERA. Ryan Hetzler is behind him with 36 ⅓ innings and a 2.48. The Rebels will likely see Sanders out of the bullpen.
The Tiger offense is the real deal. They are fifth in the SEC in batting average (.297) and third in hits (612). The lineup has pop but ranks 11th in homers with 89. With 266 walks, they also do not take many free passes.
Chase Fralick leads the lineup with a 1.085 on-base plus slugging, 20 homers and 60 RBIs. Six batters in the order have a batting average greater than .300.
