James Minzesheimer
The Ole Miss baseball team kept their hot streak alive with an 8-1 win over the Memphis Tigers on Tuesday at Swayze Field.
The Rebels were able to take advantage of five wild pitches from Memphis and a combination of timely hitting and strong pitching for the easy victory.
There were some notable changes in the lineup with Anthony Servideo sliding into the three-hole and Peyton Chatagnier leading off. There was a notable absence of Cael Baker as he took the night off with Coach Bianco using Graham at first and Van Cleve as the designated hitter.
John Rhys Plumlee got his second start this season. Although he’s still hitless, he was able to record his first RBI of the season when he hit a SAC fly in the seventh to score his football teammate Jerrion Ealy.
“You’ll read more into than it is. (It’s to) get some of the other guys in the lineup.” head coach Mike Bianco said.
On the bump for the Rebels it was a combination of strong efforts from six different pitchers who collectively struck out 12 while only allowing one run. Freshman Jackson Kimbrell looked a little shaky on the mound early, gained some composure gave the Rebels three solid innings of work.
Besides the fact that this team has been winning, they say they’ve been having a ton of fun out there with the antics of Servideo and Chatagnier in the middle infield, and amusing walk up songs like that of Matt Cioffi’s “Chicago’s Finest” by Yoshi.
“What’s really cool is this year we are really tight as a core on and off the field,” Cioffi said. The junior pitcher said his baseball movie comparison for this year’s Rebels is the Sandlot “because those guys had so much fun.”
The Rebels come out of this one with a 11-1 record only holding one loss to Louisville opening weekend. The Rebels continue to find success out of freshman like Chatagnier, Dunhurst, Burton and Diamond.
Expect to see a lot of work out of this young pitching staff against Princeton, as Coach Bianco and the Rebels gear up to take on for the three-game series this weekend.
