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Ole Miss' Luke Cheng is available for Tennessee series after coming out of Alcorn State game

11by:Jake Thompson•04/10/25•

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Ole Miss infielder Luke Cheng. Mandatory credit: Ole Miss athletics

Luke Cheng has endearingly earned the moniker ‘crash dummy’ halfway through his first season with Ole Miss and for good reason.

The Rebels utility infielder has part of his fair share of collisions with a baseball and players through the first 31 games of the season. Wednesday’s rout of Alcorn State provided another example but looks like it will not keep Cheng out of action

Thursday’s first availability report ahead of the series with No. 5 Tennessee saw Ole Miss list all players available. This means Cheng is good to go and will not be out for Friday’s series opener after taking a ball to his left cheek on a bad hop late in the 29-1 game.

Cheng came out for the final inning with Hayden Federico manning third base. He was starting to get a nice goose egg or ‘mouse’ under his eye with Luke Hill going as far to acknowledge the imminent black for Cheng come Thursday.

“He’s one of our most important people on the team,” Hill said. “He’s such a good vibe every single day and he’s going to have a black eye tomorrow and he’s going to have the same smile on his face. I mean, I think he will if he’s able to. He’s a great dude, great guy. He’s a pleasure to have on the team. We wouldn’t be the same without him, for sure.”

Cheng has been hit by a pitch 10 times, which leads Ole Miss, and has already missed games due to going into concussion protocol earlier this and then again after a collision with teammate Mitchell Sanford in the series opener against Florida two weeks ago.

When he is able to stay on the field Cheng is currently batting .351 with 15 runs batted in and four home runs, including a pair against Alcorn State. He has also drawn six walks to help his on base percentage balloon to .527, which leads the team among everyday players.

“He’s just disappointed. It’s one of those things where you get banged up a lot,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said on Wednesday. “I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s tough, but when was the last time you had two home runs in a game?’ So, sometimes you go back and forth.”

Ole Miss and Tennessee will start its SEC showdown at 6:30 p.m. CT on Friday. The first two games of the series will air on SEC Network and Sunday’s finale will air on SEC Network at 2 p.m. CT.

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