Ole Miss Re-Loads For Another Shot At Omaha

Back-to-Back Super Regionals have Rebels wanting more

Email Print


 
 

Jan. 26, 2007

By Jean Neuberger

Special to CSTV.com

 



 Jean Neuberger

Jean is a contributor to CSTV.com.
E-mail here!

Ole Miss knows they're close.

 

Two straight years, the Rebels have stormed through the NCAA Regionals. Two straight years, they've hosted NCAA Super Regionals at Swayze Field in Oxford.

 

And two straight years, they've gone to the third and deciding game, only to come up short.

 

This year, the Rebels return a veteran squad, coupled with promising new talent, to get past the Super Regionals and make it to Omaha for the first time since 1972.

 

"You have to re-load every year," said Ole Miss Coach Mike Bianco. "The SEC is too tough a conference to try and rebuild. You have to be prepared for good players leaving for the pros every year."

 

And that's what Bianco has done in Oxford. While Ole Miss has sent 21 players to the MLB Draft in the last three years, the Rebels continue to remain a national power.

 

This year's squad is led by preseason All-American Zack Cozart. Cozart, a 6-1 junior, is a reliable shortstop, hitting .338 last season while leading all SEC shortstops with a .975 fielding percentage.

 

"Zack's a sensational player," said Bianco. "He's probably the best shortstop I've ever coached. He's great at defense, offense, and can really run. When you have a guy who's that good at that critical a position, it really helps our team. Having an All-American shortstop is huge. He's a great base runner and great leader for us."

 

Bianco expects a lot of veterans, as well as newcomers, to step up for Ole Miss.

 

"Justin Henry, our second baseman, he was a captain as a sophomore and should be a great pro prospect as a junior," Bianco said. "He'll bat leadoff for us. Logan Power (.328, 2 HR, 23 RBIs) will move from left field to center field this year, and he should have a good year. Brett Basham will get a lot more time behind the plate this year, as will C.J. Ketchum, but Ketchum might be our DH because we've seen some great things from Andrew Clark, who's a freshman from Indianapolis."

 

"We'll also move Cody Overbeck to third base," added Bianco. "He's a natural third baseman, but we put him in the outfield last year just so he could get some playing time and some at bats. He's a solid third baseman for us."

 

However, with an All-American shortstop and a loaded batting order, the strength of the Rebels rests on their pitching, as their entire rotation returns from last year.

 

"We return our whole staff," said Bianco. "Our starting rotation should be the same as the one we had in '06. We'll have Will Kline (5-2, 3.74 ERA), Brett Bukvich (6-6, 4.50), and Lance Lynn (7-3, 4.96) as our main rotation. We'll also have Cody Satterwhite (11-2, 5.00) as another starter and reliever."

 

And as strong as that rotation is, one can't overlook the new additions to the pitching staff.

 

"We've got a couple of really good newcomers in Scott Bittle (6-4, 4.24) who's from Northeast Texas, and Nathan Baker (22-8 in high school), who's from the Memphis area," said Bianco.

 

Ole Miss takes on a challenging, and quite unique, schedule this year. Along with a non-conference showdown with UCLA in Oxford, the Rebels face conference foes Arkansas and Mississippi State in what will be counted as non-conference games.

 

"The game with Mississippi State is a tradition," said Bianco. "We play them one game every year down in Jackson. This year, they're moving it to a suburb of Jackson (Pearl, MS), where their double-A franchise is located. We'll get 6,000-7,000 fans though every year, and that's great for college baseball. As for Arkansas, we play them at a tournament in Minneapolis, and that was just by coincidence. Arkansas needed a weekend and Minnesota needed one more team for their tournament, and so we're playing them as well."

 

Is it an advantage though? Maybe even a disadvantage?

 

"Baseball is a game where one game really doesn't say much," said Bianco. "You can't predict a team's offense based on one game. We'll throw one of our pitchers and they'll throw one of theirs, and that can help or hurt a little, but really, it's not that big a deal."

 

The question remains though...can the Rebels finally make it to Omaha?

 

"We evaluate our team after every season," Bianco said. "You have to evaluate each year if you want to improve. And basically, there isn't anything major that we need to improve on to get to Omaha. We just need to play better and beat the opponent we're facing. The last two years, we've run into teams who were playing really good baseball and we just didn't play as well as they did. We've got to play better during those games, and just focus on beating our opponents."

 

And with all the ingredients in place for a big year, the third time just might be the charm for Ole Miss.

Back to Sports

Related Stories