Red and Blue Smoke: Ole Miss baseball will be buoyed by new faces
Ole Miss baseball opens the 2024 season this weekend in Honolulu against the Hawaii Warriors. So let’s crank back up “Red and Blue Smoke” with our buddy, Greg Jones, from LB’s Meat Market to preview the weekend. The Rebels have a ton of new transfers and are shuffling the pitching staff after Xavier Rivas’ injury. Greg and I talk about the new lineup and opportunities for pitchers in Oxford.
New transfers Andrew Fischer, Treyson Hughes, Luke Hill and Jackson Ross will carry the offense in the meat of the order. True freshman Campbell Smithwick will debut behind the dish at catcher and familiar names Reagan Burford and Ethan Lege will find their way in the lineup as well.
Second-year Rebel right-handers JT Quinn and Grayson Saunier were included, as expected. Only Xavier Rivas pitched more innings for the Rebels last season. Quinn is replacing Rivas on Friday nights. Rivas, a lefty, went down with a season-ending injury to his pitching arm in the preseason.
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But also making the cut were Gunnar Dennis and Riley Maddox. Dennis came to Ole Miss in the off-season from Meridian Community College, where he pitched to a 3.50 ERA over 70 innings in two seasons. He struck out 74 as a sophomore.
“Gunnar’s a left-hander,” Ole Miss pitching coach Carl Lafferty said Monday on the Rebel Yell Hotline. “He’s 88-92 (on his fastball), with some arm-side run and sink. Curveball, slider, change-up. It’s a four-pitch mix, and he just floods the strike zone.”
