No. 1 Ole Miss returned to Oxford after a four-game road trip and defeated the Memphis Tigers 11-8 to improve to 16-4 on the season.
The Rebels had control of this one the entire way, despite the final score being close. They scored ten runs in the first three innings to provide a sizable lead that would hold up for the win. Riley Maddox was credited with his second win of the year and Brandon Johnson picked up his third save. Jacob Gonzalez went four for five at the plate with two RBIs. Justin Bench and Reagan Burford had multi-hit days as well.
Back to winning midweek games.
Ole Miss lost its previous midweek matchup against Southeastern Louisiana, which gave them their first midweek loss of the year. Midweek games aren’t all that important when talking about NCAA tournament resumes, unless you lose a few. I doubt it will be a problem with this team, but losing midweek games can negatively affect your resume and can be the difference in getting a national seed not getting one. It’s best to not let the losses pile up, and the Rebels took care of business on Wednesday.
More bad starting pitching
Jack Washburn, the Rebels’ current midweek starter, added to what has been a stretch of not great outings by the starting staff. Washburn gave up five runs in his 3.1 innings of work, which included a four run second inning. After the second inning, Washburn found himself and was able to slow down the Memphis lineup, but the slow start lingered. Ole Miss was never really in jeopardy of losing the game, but you’d like to see a better outing from a guy who was expected to have a bigger role on the team. Washburn has only made one appearance on a weekend this season. If Derek Diamond can’t get it together on weekends, Washburn is a candidate to step in for him. Hopefully he’ll be able to start games off a little better so he can find a place in the weekend rotation.
Weekend rotation is Gaddis, Dougherty, Diamond
The team announced Diamond will now start this Sunday after his disappointing outing against Auburn in his previous start. Diamond started off the season as Ole Miss’s Friday guy and has spent the last two weeks as the Saturday starter. Diamond will now try to gain some confidence and find himself as it seems like the plug on him starting games is very close to being pulled. I think this is a good thing for the team and for Diamond. With the way the offense hits on Sunday, the team doesn’t need someone to pitch a great game on Sundays. It just needs someone who can keep them in the game for five or six innings until it can get its bullpen involved and its offense can outhit the opposing team. Diamond more than likely will be able to work with comfortable leads on Sundays, which can help his comfort and confidence as he knows what his offense is going to do. Hopefully the move will help him grow into the pitcher that Ole Miss needs him to be.
