Rebs look for return to top form

By By Will Bardwell / staff writer
June 3, 2004
OXFORD After coming within striking distance of the conference title, Ole Miss limps into this weekend's NCAA baseball regional here at Swayze Field.
The No. 15 (Baseball America) Rebels have lost four straight games, including a quick two-game exit from the Southeastern Conference tournament a week ago. Ole Miss, 39-19 overall, will get a chance to recover at home as the No. 1 seed in the first-ever NCAA regional on the Oxford campus.
"Obviously, we're extremely happy to have been selected as a regional host," said Rebels head coach Mike Bianco. "Hosting this tournament has been one of our big goals from the very beginning of the season. I am very proud of our players. This is something they have earned as a result of what they did throughout the season."
And if Ole Miss is to stick around longer in the NCAA tournament than the SEC tournament, it will need solid pitching throughout the weekend. The Rebels' 3.66 ERA is best among the four SEC West teams that received NCAA regional bids, but pitching has been shakier in recent weeks. Ole Miss gave up 25 runs to LSU in two losses on May 22-23. In the Rebels' SEC tournament opener against South Carolina, normally-reliable reliever Stephen Head, the conference's co-Player of the Year, blew a four-run Ole Miss lead with two outs in the ninth.
The Rebels have also had trouble executing fundamentally to back up their pitchers. Ole Miss had just six hits in the 7-6 loss to the Gamecocks on May 26, and the next day committed four errors in a 4-3 loss to Arkansas.
The four-team regional operates on a double-elimination format, just as the SEC tournament did.
Sophomore right-hander Mark Holliman, the Rebels' ace, will likely start Friday's regional opener against fourth-seeded Western Kentucky. Anthony Cupps started Ole Miss' game against Arkansas on May 27 and could start for the Rebels on Saturday. Head, who has been playing hurt since suffering a minor shoulder injury on May 8, is another possible starter for the Rebels.