Dillon CaderThe Ole Miss baseball team scored 20 runs off of 16 hits in just seven innings in a midweek victory over the University of North Alabama. The Rebels defeated the Lions 20-3 to improve to 17-7 on the year. Five different Rebels hit long balls and four had a multi-hit game as the team looked to be letting out some frustration from last weekend.
Welcome back Calvin
After missing nearly three weeks, Calvin Harris was back in the lineup and picked up where he left off. Harris was hitting over .500 when he got injured and after Tuesday’s game his average has propelled to .572. Harris went three for four with five RBIs, including a home run and a double. Getting Harris back is a great sign for a team that has struggled at the plate as of late. Usually catching or designated hitting, Harris started the game in left field, which says the coaching staff is trying to find a place for him in the lineup. Hopefully for Ole Miss, he can add a spark to the offense and can help hit to their potential in SEC play.
Justin Bench is hot right now.
Justin Bench went two for four in the game with three RBIs and hit his first home run of the year. Bench was the only Rebel who put up solid at-bats for most of the Tennessee series. Bench was calm under pressure at the plate, not swinging at wayward pitches and proved his ability to work a pitch count. Bench was also the saving grace for the Rebels, breaking up no-hitters on Friday and Saturday. He has improved his average to .353, which leads the team. He has recently moved up to the third in the lineup, and with the way he has been hitting, one can only assume that’s where he’ll be for a while. Kevin Graham should be back in a couple of weeks, and if a few more hitters can get hot over that stretch, Ole Miss will have its lineup back looking the way it should in the heat of SEC play.
Nice job shaking off the weekend
I was a bit worried that the team might come back out a little flat and emotionally hungover after the thumping that they took against Tennessee last weekend but to their credit, they came out ready to dominate. North Alabama isn’t exactly a worthy opponent, but it’s a program that did beat Ole Miss in a midweek game in 2019, so it wasn’t impossible for Ole Miss to lose its fourth straight game. The team looked like they were letting out some frustration, and hopefully for them the blowout is just what they needed to get their minds right for this weekend when they will try to bounce back against Kentucky and win another SEC series on the road.
