Rebel Roundabout: Austin Simmons vows Ole Miss baseball will be back in 2025

Andrew Fischer isn’t the only Ole Miss baseball Rebel already (and encouragingly) looking ahead to next season. 

Austin Simmons is a two-sport athlete also rostered as a reserve quarterback for Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss football. Simmons finished the baseball season with a 3.21 ERA in 13 appearances. He also impressed in competing with Walker Howard this spring to be Jaxson Dart’s primary backup next season.

However, Simmons, a left-handed pitcher, was shut down for the year after exiting the series opener against Alabama in April with an injury to his pitching elbow. He was later diagnosed with a sprained UCL. Simmons struck out 20 this season. He walked 11 and gave up seven runs. Five were earned

“We’ll be back,” Simmons wrote on social media Wednesday. Ole Miss was 27-29 (11-19 SEC) in 2024. 

“Thank you, Oxford.”

Fischer, a rising junior and former transfer from Duke, seemingly announced his return on Wednesday, too. Uncertainty currently abounds for the program. The Rebels lost each of their last five games to suffer yet another losing season and miss the postseason entirely.

The status of head coach Mike Bianco is, specifically, the most pressing issue. Bianco said Tuesday he expects to return. Ole Miss was coming off a first-round loss to in-state rival Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament.

Bianco led the Rebels to their one and only national championship back in the summer of 2022. However, pretty much everything else the last three years has been miserable. Ole Miss has won just 36 percent (36-64) of its SEC games — an average of 10.3 wins and 19.7 losses.

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OLE MISS’ SLAVIC CAPS LEGENDARY COLLEGE CAREER

Nikola Slavic put a final bow on his decorated Ole Miss tennis career  this week. 

Slavic earned an at-large selection to the 2024 NCAA Singles Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He dominated Joan Torres Espinosa (UT Arlington) but fell a round later to No. 13 Jack Pinnington (TCU). Espinosa was ranked No. 110 nationally. 

Slavic’s record-setting time as a Rebel included being named the 32nd ITA All-American in program history. He’s one of just five Rebels to earn All-SEC honors four times. Slavic ranks in the Top 15 in all-time singles and doubles wins.

He climbed as high as No. 6 nationally in singles and helped lead the Rebels to three NCAA Tournament appearances. The Rebels reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2021.

OLE MISS MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD PUNCHES THREE NATIONAL TICKETS

Ole Miss men’s track and field punched three tickets to the national championship meet on Day 1 of the 2024 NCAA East Regional on Wednesday. 

All-American sophomore Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan is the reigning indoor shot put champion and headed back to the outdoor meet. He’ll go for the top individual prize in the hammer, too. 

Robinson-O’Hagan was the lone competitor to break 20 meters in the shot put. 

He’s one of just two Rebel men to qualify for the shot put in multiple seasons in school history and first to do so in consecutive outdoor seasons. Robinson-O’Hagan was the first indoor title-winner in a decade. 

Robinson O’Hagan has his sights on emerging as only the 23rd athlete ever to sweep the NCAA indoors and outdoors. He’d be the first true sophomore since 2005 and youngest since 1989. 

Senior hurdler Ahmad Young Jr. automatically qualified for the quarterfinals with a sixth-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles. The women took their turn on Day 2 on Thursday. Competition kicked off at 9 a.m. CT.

DAY 1 NATIONAL QUALIFIERS

Jake Dalton – Men’s hammer
Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan – Men’s shot put and hammer

DAY 1 QUARTERFINALISTS

Ahmad Young Jr. – Men’s 110-Meter Hurdles