Drive results, wins & losses from Wednesday's scrimmage
Wednesday Scrimmage Depth Chart
HD VIDEO: Chad Morris on Wednesday
WHO: No. 5 Arkansas (18-7, 4-2) vs. No. 4 Ole Miss (23-3, 4-2)
WHERE: Swayze Field, Oxford (Miss.)
WHEN: Thursday 6:30 pm (CDT), Friday 6:30 pm (CDT), Saturday 1:30 pm (CDT)
TV: SEC Network+
Arkansas engages in its third straight SEC series against a top-five opponent this weekend as the Hogs will line up against the No. 4 Ole Miss Rebels in a three-game series in Oxford. The series winner will hold an early lead in the Western Divison. Arkansas leads the series 46-42.
The Razorbacks (18-7) snuck by a surprisingly tough Memphis Tigers team, 8-7, on Tuesday night at AutoZone Park. Arkansas used multiple clutch hits, scoring all of their runs with two outs, to edge the Tigers in Memphis. Before that victory, the Hogs didn’t start the current road trip well, going 1-3 against Charlotte and No. 2 Florida last week.
The Rebels (23-3) are coming off a one-run win themselves, theirs a 7-6 victory over No. 14 Southern Miss on Tuesday night at home. Ole Miss has yet to lose a series this season and took two of three from Tennessee and Texas A&M to start conference play. They played Memphis as well earlier in the year and won a close one, 8-6.
Hog ace Blaine Knight (4-0, 1.83 ERA) will take the mound in his usual game one spot on Thursday against Ryan Rolison (3-2, 2.88 ERA). Evan Lee (1-1, 5.19 ERA) has been inserted into the rotation for Friday’s game to face Ole Miss’ Brady Feigl (5-1, 2.08 ERA). Saturday’s finale will see Kacey Murphy (3-1, 2.28 ERA) battle it out against James McArthur (3-0, 1.93 ERA).
Here are three things to know about the No. 4 Rebels:
Ole Miss’ lineup poses a major threat.
The Rebels’ top five hitters are all batting .330 or better and are lead by infielder Chase Cockrell with a team-high .421. Infielder Grae Kessinger leads the Rebels with 33 hits, while catcher/outfielder Thomas Dillard is first on the team in runs scored (28), home runs (7) and RBIs (25). Ole Miss has yet to score fewer than 5 runs in conference play so far.
The Rebel’s pitching rotation is no slouch either (it’s really good).
Arkansas will face sophomore Ryan Rolison, redshirt junior Brady Feigl and junior James McArthur on the mound this weekend. Rolison, a lefty, has an impressive 46 strikeouts and only 15 walks in 34 1/3 innings on the bump. Feigl is 5-1 and has his fair share of strikeouts with 38 and 7 walks. McArthur has yet to lose this year at 3-0 and has the best ERA of the three at 1.93 and has only given up 8 runs and 21 hits in 28 innings.
Ole Miss is tied with Arkansas in the SEC West at 4-2.
The Rebels opened up conference play with a three-game home series against Tennessee. Ole Miss dropped the first game but took the next two, holding the Vols to one combined run in both games. They won two games against Texas A&M in their next SEC series as well but it was much more competitive. Each game was decided by one run as the earned the victory in game one and three, 5-4 and 7-6, and dropped the middle match, 7-6. The winner of this series will hold an early edge in the division standings.
