Ole Miss Rebels vs. #4 LSU Fighting Tigers at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field in Baton Rouge, LA

The Fighting Tigers kick off SEC play with division rival Ole Miss coming into The Box for what appears to be the best weather weekend of the season thus far. The Rebs have not won weekend series at Alex Box Stadium since 1982 and are just 11-40 in Baton Rouge since that series. Ole Miss (9-7, 0-0) enters the weekend with LSU after splitting a pair of midweek games with the #8 ranked Louisville Cardinals. LSU (16-1, 0-0) is riding a 13 game winning streak, allowing just 6 total runs over the last 6 games. LSU leads the all-time series 170-145 (or 168-148 according to the OM Media guide).

Ole Miss Rebels
Record: 9-7
Conference: 0-0
Non-Conf: 9-7
Home: 7-3
Away: 2-4

Team Overview
Mike Bianco and the Rebels finally got the monkey off their back and reached the College World Series last year, winning a pair of games and finished tied for 3rd for the best finish in program history. That veteran group lead by Will Allen and ace Chris Ellis has moved on and this 2015 squad is still trying to develop its own identity. They have had a rough start to the season and need to turn things around at the plate and on the mound, or they will finish in their predicted 6th position in the SEC West.

Team Stat Comparison (LSU)
Runs/game scored: 5.2 (7.0)
Runs/game allowed: 4.3 (2.8)

Team ERA: 3.75 (2.00)
Opponent ERA: 4.20 (6.59)

Team BA: .255 (.322)
Opponent BA: .232 (.213)

Team Fielding %: .977 (.969)
Opponent Fielding %: .953 (.950)

Starting Pitching
Friday night will feature a rematch from a year ago between southpaws Jared Poché and Christian Trent. Trent, the Madisonville native, is unblemished in his Ole Miss career with 12 wins and zero losses, including the game against LSU last season in which he allowed just 1 unearned run in 7 innings of work to pick up the victory over Poché and the Tigers. Trent is a typical lefty in that he pounds the strike zone and throws in the upper 80s. He has been clocked as high as 92 with his fastball. He has an outstanding swing-and-miss slider in the low 80s, as well as a good changeup around 80 mph. Christian has been known throughout his pitching career to go deep into games and very often will close them out. This lefty-lefty matchup should prove to be another great one in the series.

On Saturday, sophomore Brady Bramlett is having an outstanding season thus far after missing part of the 2013 season and taking a medical redshirt in the 2014 season with a labrum injury. Bramlett has struck out 34 of the 82 batters he has faced this season, allowing just 13 hits in 22 innings of work. He is mostly a fastball power pitcher in the low to mid 90s. He will be facing off against LSU righty Alex Lange, who continues to progress in his rookie campaign.

Sunday has been an issue for Ole Miss so far in 2015 for Bianco and his staff. Senior Sam Smith, who has started on Sundays for the last 2 seasons in Oxford, has really gotten off to rough start this year with a 6.41 ERA and has been pulled from the weekend rotation for now. With that, Ole Miss’ Sunday starter is TBA, but I expect it to be Jacob Waguespack. With 4 career starts, Wags is also a Louisiana native out of Dutchtown High who the Tigers were heavily recruiting back in 2012 but eventually chose the Rebels. He has 6 appearances on the season all in relief and has been very effective with a 0.86 WHIP. LSU will once again send out freshman Jake Godfrey.

Relief Pitching
If Waguespack does not start on Sunday, you can expect him to enter the game in any major situation this weekend, particularly in a close game on Friday night. Aside from him, Scott Weathersby and Wyatt Short have been lights out with a combined .162 BAA, 0.84 WHIP, and 30 strikeouts in 20.1 innings of work between them. Will Stokes leads the team with 2 saves in 6 appearances on the season.

Ole Miss Offense (LSU)
Team BA: .255 (.322)
Team OBP: .369 (.389)
Team SLG: .371 (.480)

The loss of 6 starters from last year’s CWS team has been devastating to Ole Miss’ offensive production. From leading the SEC in multiple offensive categories last year, the 2015 Rebs are sitting at 13th in the league with a .255 average heading into conference play. However, Ole Miss is drawing 45% more walks per game than a year ago and has actually improved its team on-base percentage despite the BA dropping over 40 points. All-SEC senior Sikes Orvis is off to a slow start with a .208 average but leads the team with 3 home runs. Leadoff hitter Kyle Watson is leading the team with a .350 average and reaches safely in more than half of his plate appearances.

On the bases, Ole miss is 10th in the SEC in stolen base attempts, successfully swiping 18 bases in their 16 games. The guys to watch out for on the base paths are Kyle Watson and Cameron Dishon, who each have stolen 7 bags on the young season. LSU is tied for the league lead with 35 stolen bases already.

Defense
Ole Miss has a solid defense fielding .977 on the season turning 15 double plays already; LSU has turned just 8. Ole Miss splits time between two main cathers. Henri Lartigue has thrown out just 1 base stealer out of 6 attempts, while Austin Knight has allowed 3 of 4 bags to be stolen against him. The LSU defense is fielding .969 as a team, which is up significantly after going errorless the last week of play. Scivicque has caught 6 of 16 attempting stealers while Papierski has caught just 1 of 6 runners going.

Helpful Links
NCAA.com Series Preview
Season Stats
Roster
Schedule (via Warren Nolan)
Live Stats via LSUsports.net
WatchESPN for Online Viewing (login required)
FAQ: How to watch LSU Baseball games this season

This post was edited on 3/13/15 at 2:30 pm