GameDay Primer: Ole Miss baseball opening 2024 with late-night moves in Hawaii

Ole Miss baseball would just soon forget its defense last season of its 2022 National Championship.

The Rebels, the year prior, used a Cinderella run as the final team named to the NCAA Tournament to win the program’s first-ever title. Last season, though, they fell on their collective faces, bottoming out with a 25-29 record, including a ghastly 6-24 mark in the confine games. Ole Miss miss the postseason for the first time since 2011. 

The Rebels responded by reeling in a transfer class in the off-season ranked by D1Baseball as the seventh-best in the nation. They’re No. 5 in the SEC. Five new Rebels were placed in the publications Top 70 Impact Transfer rankings: Treyson Hughes (RF, Mercer, No. 11), Andrew Fischer (3B, Duke, No. 17), Luke Hill (SS, Arizona State, No. 20), Jackson Ross (1B, FAU, No. 25) and Kyler Carmack (RHP, Arkansas State, No. 65).

But any significant improvement on the mound, where they had their most trouble last season, will come from now-sophomores JT Quinn and Grayson Saunier.

“Your sophomore year, you have a better idea,” Ole Miss pitching coach Carl Lafferty said this week on the Rebel Yell Hotline. “Specifically about Saunier, I think he’s really grabbed ahold of the fact that, ‘Hey, I’m just going to flood the strike zone with four pitches.’ 

“Sometimes that’s hard, because you’re taking a kid from high school who never gives up any hits (and) always dominates, and that’s just not going to be the case in the Southeastern Conference. There’s a little bit of a shell-shock, there’s a little bit of a smaller zone, not to mention they had to deal with a 20-second pitch clock that put them in fast-forward.”

Ole Miss is the only program in the country with five players included in D1Baseball’s Top 100 sophomores for the 2025 MLB Draft. 

Quinn leads the way (No. 27), followed by Hill (No. 38), Fischer (No. 40), Saunier (No. 57) and Liam Doyle (LHP, Coastal Carolina, No. 91).

Forty-eight percent (220.2) of Ole Miss’ innings last season were thrown by freshmen. Quinn was responsible for 55.1, while Saunier covered 46.

“I’m thankful now, because I do think it will bear fruit,” Lafferty said of last season’s struggles for Quinn and Saunier. “I think they’re better for it and mentally tougher. They’re ready to kind of take a step-up in their role and their performance as they move into their sophomore years.”

The Rebels will be without a projected member of their rotation for the entirety of the season. 

Veteran left-hander Xavier Rivas, as previously reported by the Spirit, injured his pitching elbow during preseason practices. He’s out for the year after Tommy John surgery.

Without Rivas, Ole Miss is turning to Quinn, a righty, as its Friday night and Opening Day starter in tonight’s (February 16) opener at 10:35 p.m. CT on ESPN+. 

The Rebels are in Hawaii for a four-game series. Gunnar Dennis and Saunier, in that order, will follow for the Saturday doubleheader. Riley Maddox gets his turn Sunday in the series finale.

“The learning curve is steep for freshmen in our league. I think that’s across the board,” Lafferty said. “There weren’t very many freshman arms that pitched in our league last year just because it’s so difficult, and it’s not just the players. If you’ve looked at the trends across the last four or five years, average velocity on fastballs goes up about half a mile an hour ever year, but ERAs have continued to climb. 

“Part of that is the strike zones are a lot smaller, but also older hitters, and the ball is more livelier than ever.”

The standard hasn't changed, but we have. pic.twitter.com/qui3Er92sH

— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) February 16, 2024

SCOUTING HAWAII

Rich Hill is in his third season at Hawaii. He has the seventh-most wins (1,136) among active college baseball head coaches.

Hawaii finished fifth in the Big West with a 29-20 (18-12) record last season. The ‘Bows return a veteran lineup featuring six players who started at least 30 games a year ago. 

Hawaii is coming off one of its best power-hitting seasons. The ‘Bows hit their most home runs in a single season in 13 years (36). They posted a slugging percentage of .416.

Harrison Bodendorf, a sophomore, is projected to oppose Quinn. He was a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-America and First Team All-Big West selection as a freshman. Bodendorf was 5-2 with a 3.45 ERA. He struck out 66 over 57.1 innings and held opposing hitters to a .239 average against.

Randy Abshier gets the ball in Game 2. He’s in his fifth college season and spent all of 2023 as Hawaii’s Saturday starter. He made 15 starts (6-3) and produced a 4.29 ERA. Abshier, a one-time transfer from Arizona, had 69 strikeouts over 71.1 innings. He leads the team with 114.1 career innings pitched and 111 strikeouts. He’s 11-3 over 55 career appearances.

📸 https://t.co/5AwdOz9CQW pic.twitter.com/s4a3N9RCS9

— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) February 16, 2024

BIG MAL IS BACK 

Ole Miss star closer Josh Mallitz missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. 

But the veteran righty is full-go now, returning to his place as one of the nation’s very best relievers.

Mallitz, in the preseason, was named to the 2024 Stopper of the Year Watch List. He last pitched in 2022 and posted a 1.45 ERA over 31 innings high-leverage innings during the title run. Mallitz held opponents to a .171 batting average and struck out 48.

Mallitz pitched in five postseason games and allowed just one run. He struck out 18 over 10.2 innings. Mallitz worked two innings, with two strikeouts, in Game 1 against Oklahoma in the College World Series Final.

OLE MISS DIAMOND CUTTERS

Rebel head coach Mike Bianco needs just 21 wins to reach 1,000 for his career. … Ole Miss recently announced expansion plans for Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field. The project is expected to be completed in time for the 2026 season. … The Rebels are scheduled to appear on the SEC Network eight times this season. They’ll be on ESPNU twice and ESPN2 once.