No. 17 Ole Miss Baseball will welcome No. 5 Georgia to Swayze Field on April 24-26.
Georgia took the series from then-No. 16 Arkansas. After a 6-3 loss on Friday, April 17, the Bulldogs bounced back and beat the Razorbacks in the next two games. They won game two, 5-3. In game three, Georgia got down 5-0 early, but came back and pummelled the Razorbacks, 26-14.
However, they lost 14-4 to No. 3 Georgia Tech at Truist Park on Tuesday, April 21.
With 13 conference wins, including seven on the road, Georgia is a battle-tested team and is not afraid of playing away from home.
The Bulldogs also have a strong presence at the plate. Ten Bulldog hitters have batting averages above .300 with less than a month to go in the regular season.
Catcher Daniel Jackson is Georgia’s biggest force at the plate. He has 62 hits, 59 RBIs and a .388 batting average. The two-time SEC player of the week hit three home runs in game three against Arkansas and has 20 total on the season. He ranks fifth in the nation in homers this season.
On the other side, the Rebels’ biggest strength is their pitching. In game one in the series against Tennessee, Friday starter Hunter Elliott pitched six innings. He struck out five, gave up three earned runs and walked one.
Cade Townsend was named SEC co-pitcher of the week for his performance against Tennessee. Through six innings last Saturday, he struck out seven batters and walked two. He only allowed one hit and did not yield any runs.
Despite Taylor Rabe’s rough outing in game three of the series, Rabe has been reliable for the Rebels on the mound as a starter. In the past three SEC series, he has 15 strikeouts and just two walks through 13.2 innings.
Walker Hooks has burst onto the scene as the Rebel closer in conference play. He has four saves and a 2.01 earned run average against SEC opponents. He has pitched the most innings in SEC play of all relievers on the team.
Reliever Landon Waters has a 3.18 ERA against the SEC and is a reliable arm out of the bullpen.
Hudson Calhoun has been the go-to arm for head coach Mike Bianco on Fridays. He has surrendered just two runs in his last five SEC appearances.
The Georgia pitching staff has also had its fair share of success. The Bulldog staff struck out 27 batters in their series against Arkansas.
Caden Aoki, Georgia’s game-two starter, has 54 strikeouts and just 15 walks through 40 innings pitched. He also has only given up 12 earned runs. Aoki will be just one of a few tough pitchers that the Rebels will face. However, the Rebel offense may be hard to tame for the Georgia defense, too. The Ole Miss bats are some of the hottest in the country.
Tristan Bissetta, Judd Utermark and Hayden Federico each had games during which each player Bissetta also had eight total RBIs in the series.
In the Rebels’ most recent game against Murray State, they scored 19 runs. The team totaled 14 hits through six innings with five home runs.
Utermark hit two home runs. Federico, Topher Jones and Owen Paino all had one home run apiece.
As far as similar opponents go, both the Rebels and the Bulldogs won series against Tennessee. Georgia lost two games to unranked Florida, while the Rebels took the series against then-No. 21 Gators. In late March, Mississippi State swept the Rebels in Oxford. Georgia swept Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss., the following weekend.
