Arkansas Series Aftermath

 

                  It’s not as though Ole Miss was outclassed in Fayetteville. Maybe that’s why this series and this season have been so difficult to stomach. Perhaps it would be more palatable if the Rebels had been blown out in the Natural State. That way, there would be something concrete to point to, and the series loss would have been easier to explain away. But that wasn’t the case – a series victory and even a sweep were there for the taking.

              It is unlikely that an unfamiliar observer would have pegged the Rebs and Hogs to be at opposite ends of the SEC West standings.  Dylan DeLucia outshined Connor Noland on Friday night, igniting hope that this weekend might have a different outcome than the preceding series. Hunter Elliot matched Hagen Smith in a battle of talented, freshman left handers on Saturday. In the series finale, Rebel Derek Diamond was sharper than his counterpart, Jaxon Wiggins. Each bullpen gave a solid showing over the weekend. In short, the much-maligned pitching staff did what it needed to in a difficult environment. No Razorback has put up the power numbers that Jacob Gonzalez and Tim Elko have. The Razorbacks have hit .280 collectively – just a tick better than Ole Miss at .278.  Yet the reality is that Rebels are likely getting an early start on summer baseball while Arkansas will sleep in their own beds until they reach Omaha. A Rebel season destined to end in Omaha now appears poised to end with a last-ditch Hail Mary in Hoover, Alabama. Unfortunately for Ole Miss, Doug Flutie is not listed on the roster.

              The exact reason for the struggles has been difficult to put a finger on. Except for one weekend in March, the Rebels have matched or exceeded the talent level in the opposing dugout. Individually, the components of the offense have largely performed as expected. Jacob Gonzalez and Tim Elko had had seasons worthy of their preseason All-American Status. Kevin Graham has fought through injury to contribute in the middle of the lineup. Justin Bench, TJ McCants, and Hayden Leatherwood are about where we thought they would be for the season. Kemp Alderman has taken a large step forward and Reagan Burford has made contributions as well. Ben Van Cleve has emerged as a viable pinch-hit option. Despite this, the offense has lacked synergy. Put into laymen’s terms, the sum of the whole has been less than the sum of the individual parts. In comparison, for Arkansas, the end result as a team has exceeded individual successes.

           Perhaps the biggest example of the difference between the two SEC West foes came in the ninth inning of Sunday’s game. Arkansas freshman reliever, and Mississippi native, Brady Tygart took the mound in the top of the ninth looking for a nine-out save. Tygart was pitching for the second consecutive day after getting six high leverage outs on Saturday. 

As ESPN commentator Kyle Peterson noted, Tygart’s stuff wasn’t as sharp on Sunday.   After laboring through the seventh and eight but emerging unscathed, the freshman right-hander walked Calvin Harris to start the ninth. Hayden Dunhurst followed with a strikeout bringing John Kramer to the plate for his inaugural SEC plate experience.  Looking like a veteran, Kramer responded by drawing a walk after taking some tough pitches. I’d like to see more of the St. Louis native moving forward. After Justin Bench lined out in foul territory, Tygart had to get through Jacob Gonzalez to register the game in the win column for the Hogs.  Gonzalez ultimately worked a walk by taking two borderline pitches, drawing the ire of Arkansas manager Dave Van Horn. On two separate occasions, Tygart thought he had caught the Rebel shortstop looking to end the game.

 The walk brought the Rebels mightiest hitter, Tim Elko, to the plate. It would have been easy for the freshman Tygart to fall apart and serve up a meatball to Elko and surrender the lead. After a visit from pitching coach Matt Hobbs, the Mississippi-bred right-hander calmly got ahead of Elko with his patented breaking ball and ultimately induced a harmless fly out to center to end the game. Tygart was in complete control of the at-bat with Elko and really the Gonzalez at-bat as well. He looked the part of the veteran against the Rebels most talented and experienced hitters. Ole Miss didn’t look particularly comfortable in any of their ninth inning at-bats.  On a day when he didn’t have his best stuff, Tygart managed to find his best breaking balls when it mattered most. That’s precisely where Ole Miss has faltered this season. Jacob Gonzalez’s heroics against Mississippi State aside, the timely hit and pitch have largely eluded them this season. Never had it been more evident and heart breaking than on Saturday and Sunday in front of a national television audience. It was quite ironic that a Mississippi native sunk his home state team on a day in which an ad for Arkansas’s scholarship lottery loomed in the background on the back stop. That’s a discussion for another day.

As I mentioned previously, it is hard to put a finger on exactly why Ole Miss hasn’t been able to consistently deliver in big situations. Maybe the team is pressing. Perhaps it’s just dumb luck. Some might even say that that’s just baseball. Whatever the reason, the Rebels need to turn it around this weekend against Missouri to even have a chance to say a prayer in Hoover.