Fantastic pitching performances from Drew Pomeranz and Scott Bittle led Ole Miss to a series win yesterday over the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Pomeranz threw 7 scoreless innings and struck out 7 while walking only 2 in the second game of the day. His pitching performance helped Ole Miss to an 8-0 win.
With the two wins yesterday, the Rebels cliched the series win over Vanderbilt and will be going for the sweep today with Cody Satterwhite on the hill. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 PM.
Other Rebel teams in action today are the #7 Men’s Tennis team hosting #16 LSU, the Softball team is hosting Kentucky, and the Women’s Tennis team plays at LSU. All of these events are scheduled for 1:00PM.
A hot topic around Ole Miss message boards these days has been the topic of fundraising and facilities expansion. This is a topic that I have observed and have formed some fairly strong opinions about.
Currently, Ole Miss is raising money for the much anticipated Basketball Practice Facility. Of course, work on the expansion of Oxford-University Stadium is underway, but due to underestimating the cost of the project, it was delayed and is not expected to be completed until the beginning of next baseball season.
Obviously the basketball facility is the cause of most of the uproar about fundraising at this time. First, the start of active fundraising was tied to the launch of the most recent capital campaign and the infamous daytime fireworks episode. In conjunction with that announcement, the UMAA Foundation is said to have sent out nearly 60,000 brochures and donation request forms to potential donors. To date, the project is still behind in raising the necessary funds to start construction.
The question that comes immediately to my mind is “Who should we blame?”.
The answer: All of us.
The administration bears some of the blame due to their slowness to act, lack of active methods of fundraising, and over reliance on the “big money” donors who are beginning to feel as if the University is simply trying to squeeze every penny out of them possible.
The coaches also bear some of the blame for this. How is Andy Kennedy to blame? In an odd sort of way, it is very possible that interest in raising funds for the facility dropped as the losses in the SEC accumulated this season. Ole Miss fans are notorious for looking for excuses not to support our athletic programs and losing provides the easiest excuse of them all.
Last, but certainly not least, the fans. Yes, us. Ole Miss fans have an annoying habit (myself included) of demanding a lot of things and expecting someone else to pay for them.
More on my thoughts about Ole Miss fans… The Ole Miss fan is a strange breed. We pride ourselves on being “classier” and more “upscale” than our rivals in Starkville, Auburn, Baton Rouge, and other places around the country. We often talk about our love for Ole Miss and the spirit that surrounds the school and campus. Yet, so often, when we are asked to give our time, money, and energy to supporting our athletic programs, the response is so often “Let someone else do it” or “I’ll donate when they call me and ask me for money”.
We need to look around the SEC and ask ourselves if we are really committed to being a big time competitor in the Southeastern Conference arms race. When Alabama wants to expand, they don’t have to wait for the money to start - they have fans so desperate to be a part of the mystique of Alabama athletics that they donate thousands just to be on the waiting list for a season ticket. There’s no last minute scrambling to find people to donate - their donors are calling and pledging money before plans are even discussed. The same goes for our SEC brethren in Knoxville, who have such a demand for tickets that they can charge $1,000 per season for endzone seats in their nosebleed upper deck. Florida? Don’t get me started on their Bull Gators who will drop a hundred thousand dollars or more for a burnt steak with a big “F” branded onto it.
Even lowly SMU had a group of donors step up to donate $100,000 each per season to ensure that the money was always there to pay the salary of new football coach June Jones.
So, Ole Miss fans, this is our chance to make the leap into the big time. Let’s get the basketball facility paid for and so overwhelm the administration with donations that they don’t even have to wait to start the next big project.
Well, bottom of the 2nd and the offense shows up… Jeremy Travis drives in 2 with a double to center field. Still batting, so hopefully we’ll find some more runs right here.
Ouch… Top of the 1st, one down and De La Osa and Pedro Alvarez both hit solo homeruns off of Lance Lynn. Not a good start for the Rebel ace.
Whew… out of the inning with no additional damage. Lynn strikes out one and gets a ground out for the final 2 outs of the inning. On to the bottom of the 1st…
Well, that was quick… 3 up, 3 down for the Rebels in the first. I know Minor is good, but the Rebels haven’t shown anything to make me think the hitting woes are going to end today so far.
The question of the day, at least as far as I’m concerned, is whether or not the Rebel baseball team can end their hitting woes against Vanderbilt. We’ve seen this team slumping at the plate for the past several weeks and, quite frankly, it’s time for this team to prove that they’re as talented as Mike Bianco has claimed and end that slump today.
I’ve said all along that we’ve looked like we have been trying to play the “Gorilla Ball” of the mid-90’s LSU squads. With the new bats, it seems like the better choice would be to take advantage of our abundant speed on the basepaths and try to manufacture runs whenever possible. Yes, with hitters like Overbeck, Power, and Matt Smith in the lineup, we’re going to try to hit some homeruns. That’s ok with me as long as the other batters in the lineup do their part and hit for contact, get on base, sacrifice runners over, and manufacture some runs.
We know the pitching is solid, now it’s just time for the bats to wake up and help us win some baseball games.
Filed under: Baseball — Rebel Ramblings @ 10:00 am
Due to an uncooperative Almighty, the Rebels are scheduled to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores in a double header today starting at 1:00PM. With a compressed weekend, the Rebels desperately need to take at least one of these two games today and really need to find a way to produce more runs than they have in recent weeks.
Filed under: Basketball — Rebel Ramblings @ 12:55 am
Word on the street from Neal McReady of RebelSports.net and Parrish Alford of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal is that LSU might be very interested in Andy Kennedy. The question that comes immediately to my mind is “Why?”.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Andy Kennedy is a fantastic young basketball coach. However, with 2 years as a head coach, 1 year as the interim coach at Cincinnati, one has to wonder if the Bayou Bengals might want to go after someone with a little more of a proven track record. In 3 years as a head coach, Kennedy has taken his teams to the post season every year… Unfortunately, that post season has been the NIT every time. Combine that with Ole Miss’ serious road woes this year and tendency to fall apart against the weaker teams in the SEC (see Auburn twice and South Carolina) and you have to think that might scare the Tigers away.
Personally, I’m of a mind to hope that the way this year’s Ole Miss team “underachieved” might scare potential suiters away… I think we’ve got a gem in Kennedy and think that we’re only a year or two away from having something really special in Oxford. Unfortunately, until our administration starts seeing the $$$ that the basketball program can bring in, I don’t think we’ll see the will from Pete Boone and Robert Khayat to do what it takes to keep a coach like Kennedy in Oxford.
