Rippee Writes: Wednesday Scoop
Ole Miss throttled at LA Tech, March Madness is here
A Happy Wednesday to all. Today, we’ve got Ole Miss Baseball to discuss, along with March Madness, free meat for subscribers and some golf. Let’s roll.
An ugly loss at Louisiana Tech
Ole Miss was throttled, 13-1, by a good Louisiana Tech team last night. The Bulldogs started the game with four straight doubles and didn’t relent. A couple quick thoughts:
I don’t believe the pitching performance should be of much concern from last night. Josh Mallitz actually recovered nicely after the horrendous start and put up three zeroes. None of his five successors outside of Austin Miller are going to play major roles on SEC weekends. Between the bad start, the score ballooning in the middle innings and Ole Miss’ COVID hiccup that reportedly affected the pitching staff, I don’t make much of last night.
Bianco said after the game Doug Nikhazy won’t pitch this weekend. If you read last week or listened to the podcast, we suspected this was the case. Drew McDaniel handled himself well last weekend. Sure, Auburn is a different animal than UL-Monroe, but there is no reason to rush Nikhazy back from this injury. I would bet he is good to go by Alabama the next weekend, but again, I am just guessing.
Ole Miss ends its non-conference season at 13-4. Looking at it like a resumé, the opening weekend in Arlington shines brightest. The four losses aren’t ideal but certainly don’t put them behind the eight ball in terms of RPI and hosting chances. The Rebels would do well to not drop a midweek the rest of the way, or one at worst. There’s nothing left in the midweek that is going to help you and losses will only hurt.
Simply put, this team needs to play better than it currently is. Louisiana Tech has a capable pitching staff that stifled Arkansas on Sunday, but the lethargic offensive performance is another symptom to a problematic approach. The Rebels struck out six times, were 2-14 with runners on base and 1-6 with runners in scoring position. One thru five in the order went 2-15 and both hits came from Kevin Graham. This team is swinging at bad pitches too often and not stringing together quality at-bats. Ole Miss’ offensive identity is extra-base hits and hitting the ball over the fence. That’s all fine, but the effort can’t come at the cost of not getting on base. There have been quite a few concerning offensive outputs through these first 17 games. It had better improve in SEC play or they will be in for a frustrating year.
March Madness is back and so is a friend
March Madness is here and I am happy to announce my good friend Greg Jones, affectionately known as LBs Greg or Greg The Meatsharp, is joining the Rippee Writes team. What’s that mean for you? We’re going to be doing twice-weekly specials for subscribers. You’ll be able show proof you subscribe to this newsletter and receive discounts on LBs purchases. Still working out the details on how that will look, but the first special is tomorrow and it’s a good one. Stay tuned and don’t miss out. LBs is the best place in Mississippi to get meat and Greg is good people. It’s grilling season. Go see him, he’ll take care of you. Make sure you’re a subscriber and encourage your friends to do the same.
We hopped on a podcast last night and filled out a bracket. I have no clue if it’s any good and I don’t mean Greg. We always have a blast picking games and talking sports, I am just not sure how bracketology translates to an audio medium, but we’re trying new things. Here’s the pod. It’s available on Apple and Spotify as always. Our surely perfect and no-chance of being wrong brackets are below.
Speaking of March Madness, check out SkyBox Sports Picks. They’ve got a special package for the NCAA Tournament and you get 20 percent off with my promo code.
Magnolia State Golf Update:
Finally some substance for this spot. I moved to Wednesdays to give more notice on tee times.
PGA Tour: Honda classic
No Mississippians in the field to my knowledge. This segment feels like a rebuilding baseball team about to hit its contention window as its young stars mature. We are so close to having multiple guys regularly on tour. We forge on — 2022 will be a great year for this content piece.
The Korn Ferry Tour is in scenic Broussard, Louisiana: reminder this tour is doing a two-year long season (essentially combining 2020-2021) due to COVID-19 pause.
Hayden Buckley tees off at 7:20 tomorrow morning. The Tupelo native won the first event of the continuation of this wraparound season last month and sits 27th on the money list. You can read about his journey right here on this website.
Ole Miss alum Jonathan Randolph is two groups behind at 7:30 a.m. The journeyman has played 21 events and sits 105th in the standings.
Hattiesburg native and Alabama alum Davis Riley tees off at 8:10 a.m. Riley is third in the standings and well on his way to earning a PGA Tour after winning twice last year — once in Panama last February and at the Tour’s San Antonio stop last July after the COVID restart. Normally, three wins earns you a instant battleground promotion to the PGA Tour, though I am not sure how that is affected by this funky season.
Tupelo native and Mississippi State alum Chad Ramey tees off at 12:20. He sits 9th in the standings and is also in line to get a Tour card despite not winning an event. His finishes are remarkably consistent — six top 10s and five top 5s in 2020 will get the job done.
Ole Miss alum Braden Thornberry is in the afternoon wave with a prime Saturday wolf game slot at 1:50. Thornberry is 50th in the standings, right in striking distance with a full season to go and has played 23 events to this point.
College:
Ole Miss finished T-8 the General Hackler Championship in Conway, South Carolina. Fresh off his second win in as many starts, Jackson Suber finished T-8 individually and continues to play incredibly well to start this year.
Mississippi State finishes up the Auburn Tiger Invitational today after the final round was suspended on Tuesday. The Bulldogs sit T-7 as a team and Ford Clegg is T-6 individually.
Jackson native Wilson Furr is tied for the individual lead at this event. He’s got three holes left to finish and is at -10 along with Arkansas’s Tyson Reeder.
On the Horizon:
Mailbag Friday pod with Collin Brister that is sure to include a ton of baseball talk as the Rebels begin SEC play. Get your questions in now.
A pair of newsletters
Stay tuned for the first LBs special. Go by on your way to the games this weekend. What is better than free meat to grill at Swayze?
That is all from me today. Share with your friends and tell them to subscribe. It is cool to see this continue to grow.
