Will USM’s three-headed monster roar against Ole Miss in NCAA Super Regionals?
High stakes baseball is being played inside of Pete Taylor Park for the third straight weekend.
Ole Miss arrives in Hattiesburg to face the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in the first all-Mississippi Super Regional battle.
Southern Miss clinched its right to host the best-two-out-of-three series by squeezing past LSU with an 8-7 win and getting a little bit of help from the Rebels.
If Miami had made it out of the Coral Gables Regional, as it was favored to, USM would be playing for a CWS spot in South Florida.
It was Ole Miss, who snuck into the tournament as an on-the-bubble at-large bid, who swept Coral Gables and forced the Super Regionals into an in-state meeting in the Pine Belt.
The two teams have a history already this season. They first met in Pearl where USM took down Ole Miss, 10-7. Then again in Hattiesburg in front of a school-record 6,346 fans, where the Rebels evened the series with a 4-1 win.
The pitching factor
In those first two meetings between the schools, there’s one important factor to consider when taking in those previous results: USM did not use any of its weekend starters in those games.
Ole Miss will have to contend with one of the best pitching rotations in all of college baseball, from a statistical standpoint.
It’s a three-headed monster between All-American Tanner Hall, Hurston Waldrep and Hunter Riggins. The three combined to allow just three earned runs in 23.2 innings pitched across their first three starts in last weekend’s regional.
Hall pitched eight innings of scoreless baseball against Army before Waldrep wowed both USM and LSU fans with an 11-strikeout performance in 6.2 innings against the Tigers.
Riggins’ moment came in a clutch, nine-inning outing against Kennesaw State that saved the Golden Eagle bullpen in the first of two games that day.
Together, the trio have a combined ERA of 2.71. For comparison, Ole Miss’ team ERA sits at 4.61 and the Rebels only have two starters with ERA’s under 4.00.
Southern Miss is shaking up its rotation order this weekend and going with Waldrep in game one and Hall in Game two. Riggins will be the starter in an if-necessary game three.
While the Rebels have not announced their starters for the weekend, they are riding a red-hot bullpen. Ole Miss relievers did not give up a single earned run in 12.1 combined innings in Coral Gables.
Will it rain in Hattiesburg?
As chances are getting stronger for weather to play a factor this weekend, there’s also a high chance of baseball’s raining into the trees beyond the outfield walls.
While Ole Miss hasn’t displayed the season-long pop that recent visitors LSU has, there’s still danger lurking in its lineup. Tim Elko comes in with a school-record 22 home runs and he hit three of them in his last game against Arizona.
Elko’s 2.111 slugging percentage last weekend was the highest of any player across all of regional play. He’s joined by Jacob Gonzales and his 17 home runs as two of the more lethal long-ball threats out of the SEC.
For Southern Miss, it will be about consistency. Three players have at least 16 home runs, but the lineup is prone to pockets of cold streaks.
In the Hattiesburg regional, the runs were saved for LSU with long stretches of offensive droughts against Army and Kennesaw State. Freshman All-American Carson Paetow was 0-for-8 against the Black Knights and Owls, but launched three key home runs against the Tigers in three games.
Similar to Ole Miss and Elko, the Golden Eagle offense revolved around one player last weekend. First baseman Christopher Sargent had 11 hits and six runs scored during his MVP-stretch in the regional.
With both teams pitching well and getting big performances from star players at the plate, the ‘Sip showdown is shaping up to be the must-watch Super of the upcoming weekend.
The series opened as the only Super with even odds for both teams to win on Ceasars Sportbook.
The first game will be played on Saturday at 3 p.m. on ESPNU. Game two will start Sunday at 3 p.m. on either ESPNU or ESPN2.
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 1:40 PM.
