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Heat Check: The bottom of the batting order is making some noise for Ole Miss baseball

11by:Jake Thompson•05/01/23•

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Ole Miss veteran infielder Ethan Lege (photo courtesy of Ole Miss athletics)

This past weekend saw the Ole Miss baseball team secure its first Southeastern Conference series of the season but it also continued to see bats that have been a slump start to awaken.

Production from the bottom of the order has been stagnant in SEC play but second baseman Peyton Chatagnier, right fielder TJ McCants and third baseman Ethan Lege are beginning had strong weekends.

Plenty of reasons for why Ole Miss (23-21, 5-16 SEC) has been struggling since the middle of March but one of the larger ones is the lack of production from all nine hitters. A top heavy production from the start of the line up in Ethan Groff, Kemp Alderman, Calvin Harris and Jacob Gonzalez has not been enough to make up for it in key moments.

Over the last few weeks things are starting to click at the plate at the top, middle and bottom of the Ole Miss lineup.

Lege is one that has been heating up the past few weeks, including a 6-for-18 (.333) series against Georgia with four runs batted in and a home run. Since the LSU series Lege is hitting .300 (9-for-30) in conference play.

The junior is being rewarded for his improvement at the plate as he was moved up to the top of the order in the Georgia series.

“(Lege’s struggles) has been more uncharacteristic because he played real, real well in the fall. He just got off to a slow start and that can happen,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “He’s swung it as well in the last three weeks or so as anyone on the team.”

Chatagnier provided Ole Miss another boost of offense this weekend, putting up numbers similar to last June.

Prior to Chatagnier’s first of two solo home runs on the weekend he was 6-for-60 (.100) at the plate in SEC play.

Against the Bulldogs he hit .363 (4-for-11) with the pair of home runs and three RBIs. The drastic turnaround is a step in the right direction for Chatagnier, but will need to be continued this weekend at Missouri and beyond for it to be more than an aberration of the season.

McCants went 2-for-9 (.222) against Georgia but it was the final hit of the weekend that mattered the most. With the score tied McCants hit a single to left field and scored Judd Utermark for the walk-off to clinch the series.

“The bottom (of the order), those guys really swung it well at the beginning of the season and haven’t swung it well in conference play,” Bianco said. “Peyton with the big home run (on Sunday) and another home run earlier in the series as well. TJ swinging it better, certainly the big hit, but he’s had some really good at-bats this weekend as well.

“We’re going to need that. For you to be good, offensively, you can’t just do it at the top. The bottom’s got to be able to throw some punches, too, and we were able to do that.”

Ole Miss returns to action on Tuesday against Little Rock for its annual Kids Day game at 11 a.m. CT.

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