Hot-hitting Calvin Harris could soon be a lineup regular for No. 7 Ole Miss baseball

Ole Miss hitting coach Mike Clement had a scheduled media appearance Monday at 11 a.m., but he was running late. 

Clement is usually a stickler for punctuality. However, the Ole Miss coaching staff, led by Rebel head coach Mike Bianco, were deep off in a discussion that couldn’t wait. The offense, for the most part, has been up and down through the first few months of the season, and one of the few consistent performers has been second-year catcher/outfielder/first baseman Calvin Harris. 

The coaches are giving real consideration to inserting Harris into the every-day lineup, but they don’t want to rush him. Harris is just now rounding into form after an extended stretch of inactivity due to an oblique injury. In all, he’s made 14 appearances in 27 games, including nine starts.

No. 7 Ole Miss is in Pearl Tuesday for a showdown with No. 18 Southern Miss at 6 p.m. CT. The game is radio-only.

“I think the answer to that would be a resounding yes,” Clement said. “And he would have been prior to now if not for the oblique issue.”

Ole Miss has been cautious with Harris ever since he was cleared of the oblique injury right before the Tennessee series. 

Obliques can be tricky. Re-aggravation is a real concern, especially when compared to other such nagging injuries. Clement and Co. are simply trying to determine if now is the time to cut him loose.

Harris played in all four games last week, including three hits in four at-bats in a win over North Alabama in the midweek. Harris homered and doubled in the 20-3 win. He has team-high marks in batting average (.531), OPS (1.396) and slugging (.781).

Harris totaled four plate appearances in three games of a series win at Kentucky, but his only hit came Saturday. Ole Miss is 19-8 (4-5 SEC) overall. The Rebels and Golden Eagles last met in Pearl in 2019 — an 11-2 Ole Miss win.

“We’re still trying to work him in and get at-bats and put him in a position to have success,” Clement said. “But I don’t think he’s too far from being (an every-day hitter).”

The coaches are considering any and all options to jump-start an offense that was widely expected to be one of the very best (and pitcher immune) in baseball coming into the season. 

Ole Miss is in the middle of the pack in the SEC in batting average, on-base, doubles, triples, total bases and walks. To be fair, the power, which carried the Rebels to a Super Regional appearance last season, has been there, even if a little sporadic. Ole Miss is top-three in slugging percentage and runs batted in. The Rebels are fifth in homers. 

Ole Miss returned pretty much its entire starting lineup from a year ago, yet the Rebels are in the bottom-four in hits, total plate appearances and at-bats. Ole Miss had scored 11 runs in 45 SEC innings before a 10-1 outburst in the series-clinching third game at Kentucky on Sunday.

“Typically with a really good offense like we have, you have maybe one guy scuffling,” Clement said. “Tennessee completely shut us down, but I think it’s more a product of Tennessee’s arms than somebody else’s offense. But our expectation is that we’re able to hit whoever shows up.

“A lot of it was about confidence. It was the first time a lot of these guys, in a long time, had really gotten punched in the mouth collectively. It took us a little bit longer to bounce back than it should have. The encouraging thing was (Sunday). There was some long faces after Saturday evening’s loss. Really proud of the character of our guys to be able to bounce back after being spotty the first two days. They gave us a really good performance Sunday to get us a road series win.”

Harris won’t solve Ole Miss’ issues on his own. 

Peyton Chatagnier has struggled. TJ McCants has been inconsistent. Tim Elko is doing damage when he makes contact (11 home runs) but he isn’t hitting for average (.275). Jacob Gonzalez is under .300, and Hayden Dunhurst is slashing .222/.421/.370. Dunhurst is at least taking his walks. 

Justin Bench has been the most steady lineup regular. Harris, then, could potentially provide a spark — if he’s healthy.

“It’s a similar offense to a year ago. Almost identical as far as the personnel goes,” Clement said. “The frustrating thing early on here is in our losses we haven’t swung the bats. A year ago, we had several games where we got down early big. I remember the Arkansas game, I remember the LSU game, and some of them in games we ended up losing. But we were able to muddy it up. Somebody gets out to a 7-0 lead and we get beat, but it’s 9-7. Against Arkansas, it was 11-0 and we come back and tied the game up and ended up losing 18-14 or some crazy score. 

“We just haven’t done that yet. We’ve gotten punched in the mouth a little bit and haven’t recovered in those games in particular. The games in between, we’ve scored and scored a lot. But we want to be more than a momentum offense — when things are going well we can really ambush you. I think it’s probably more, hey, when we get down early, can we grind out at-bats and muddy the water and make it one of those ugly baseball games. We just haven’t done that in our losses.”