Have a day John Gaddis
Senior starting pitcher John Gaddis had himself a game in his third start of the year. The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi transfer pitched seven innings and shutout a UCF offense that averaged eight runs a game. Gaddis also managed to rack up eight strikeouts while allowing four hits.
Gaddis has had a terrific start to the season. Through three starts, he has given up just one run and has tallied 12 strikeouts. His 0.64 ERA leads Ole Miss’ starting pitchers and puts him as one of the best in college baseball. Even though he has played just three games, Gaddis has shown how valuable he can be for the Rebels. He adds depth to an already deep pitching rotation.
The bats stayed quiet
Ole Miss’s offense was practically nonexistent for the duration of the game. The team had a total of just three hits and were struck out 16 times. A big reason why the Rebels got shutout was because they couldn’t stay disciplined at the plate. There were a lot of swings at balls outside of the zone, and the batters just didn’t get lucky when they did make contact on balls because they would get caught hitting into double plays or deep flyouts. It was a weird game for a phenomenal Rebel offense that averaged just around 11 runs per game and had a team batting average of .341.
But give credit to UCF’s pitchers. Starting pitcher Connor Strain threw seven innings, got 10 strikeouts and gave up just two hits to an explosive Ole Miss offense. UCF would turn to the bullpen in the eighth inning, and just when the Rebels thought that would be the break they needed to ignite the bats, right-handed reliever Chase Centala threw five innings and obtained six strikeouts while allowing just one hit.
This was the first time Ole Miss had been shutout in a game since 2019 against Tennessee.
Is UCF Ole Miss’s kryptonite?
With the win, UCF ended Ole Miss’s nine game winning streak and their red hot start to the season that helped them earn their No. 2 ranking.
UCF always seems to create a tough test for the Rebels on the diamond. Going back to last season, UCF gave Ole Miss some trouble as they managed to win an early-season series. Even though the Rebels were able to win the first game of this season’s series against the Knights, they were a bit caught off guard by UCF’s offense and won by just one run after racking up four run-rule victories in their first nine games of the season.
But, what could it be? Is it the trouble at the plate? Is it the difficulties on the mound? Or are the baseball gods just shining the light towards UCF every time they play the Rebels? The world may never know.
