Closer still unsettled and Saunier provided a scare, but Ole Miss close to finalizing opening weekend pitching plans

True freshman right-handed pitcher Grayson Saunier gave the Ole Miss baseball coaching staff a bit of a scare over the weekend. 

Long-time Ole Miss pitching coach Carl Lafferty said Monday on the Rebel Yell Hotline Saunier felt some muscle soreness in his throwing arm following a bullpen. Saunier also left the team on Sunday to attend a funeral for a family member. He returned Monday night.

“You’re always concerned with a pitcher when it’s anything arm-related,” Lafferty said. “I wasn’t too terribly concerned. Grayson threw a pitch and didn’t feel good. Also, Grayson’s has had some stuff internally, family-wise, that he’s dealing with, so he had to leave practice. 

“I fully expect him to be good this weekend. We’re going to do whatever we need to do to make sure he feels good and he’s ready to go. But I would fully expect him to be pitching this weekend. On the spectrum of injuries and things like that, it wasn’t something that alarmed me too much.”

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Sauner used fall and preseason practices to position himself to open the 2023 season as a member of the Rebels’ starting pitching rotation.

Ole Miss will be led by All-American and team ace Hunter Elliott. But the Rebels are still sorting through their options behind him, among them Saunier, the No. 126 overall prospect in the 2022 MLB Draft. He didn’t allow a run in five combined innings in previous scrimmages.

Other rotation candidates include veteran Jack Dougherty and junior college transfer Xavier Rivas. The Rebels open the season with the first of a three-game set against Delaware on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT at Swayze Field.

“The big thing for us as a staff is to figure out the best order to put these guys so we can go out and win,” Lafferty said. Lafferty also made sure to mention true freshman righty Sam Tookoian, who Lafferty said threw five combined one-hit innings with four strikeouts last weekend. His ran his fastball up to the mid-90s.

“We haven’t absolutely decided on anything yet. There’s still some stuff (Ole Miss head) coach (Mike Bianco) is mulling over and thinking about. We’ll land on it in the next 24-48 hours. There’s still a little bit to be decided.”

Dougherty could also serve as the team’s closer. 

Josh Mallitz was previously penciled in at the back end for the Rebels, who will be finally embarking on the defense of the program’s first-ever national championship. Ole Miss won 10 of its 11 NCAA Tournament games, including a two-game sweep of Oklahoma in the College World Series in June.

Mallitz, as announced in November, was lost for the season to Tommy John surgery. He suffered a tear to the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. 

“That’s kind of the dilemma that we’ve got and we’re still talking about internally in the office,” Lafferty said. “The good thing is with Dougherty, he’s absolutely pitched good enough to be a weekend starter.

“But he’s also a guy who could come in and if you put him in in the seventh inning you just have the feeling the game’s going to be over.”

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Mallitz had a team-best 1.45 ERA over his 17 appearances (31.0 innings) last season. 

He had 48 strikeouts to 12 walks. Mallitz allowed just five earned runs and held opposing hitters to a collective .171 batting average.

“There’s still some stuff going on because we’ve got some talented newcomers that we think should fit some starting roles,” Lafferty continued. “The thing we talk about as a staff is the best way to configure this pitching staff to win weekends. What is the best formula to put it together so when we get through Sunday we’ve won two of three or swept?

“That’s the challenging thing for us. When you have a lot of new faces, while they’re talented, there’s not a track record, so to speak. That’s going to be the interesting thing for us the first weekend — is trying to figure out (the closer) role. The goal is always, by the time we get to (SEC) play, to have that figured out to really feel good about it.”