Around The Horn: Observations From Ole Miss' Series Win Over Auburn

Three blowouts over the course of three days were the storyline between Ole Miss and Auburn over the weekend, and the Rebels came away on the winning side of two of those decisions.

Final scores of 13-6, 19-5 and 15-2 were the results on Thursday-Saturday, and Ole Miss won the first and last of the contests to win its opening series of conference play. Here are three takeaways from the Rebels' weekend in Auburn.

1. The starting pitching has some problems.

The Tigers hit John Gaddis early during Thursday's game and shelled Derek Diamond the second time through the order on Friday.

Gaddis' method of operation is usually to fill up the zone, so missing bats isn't always a part of his game, but in SEC play, that may come back to bite at times. It's not time to give up on Gaddis in the starting rotation, but the early portions of Thursday's game were not positive for the Rebel southpaw.

Derek Diamond also struggled the second time through the order on Friday, a theme that was present last season as well. To be fair, the Rebels really couldn't find an arm to stop the bleeding on Friday in general, but the lack of longevity from the weekend starting arms is a concern moving forward.

Ole Miss is used to having a weekend arm like Doug Nikhazy or Gunnar Hoglund that is almost a guaranteed six innings right out of the gate. That may not be the case this season.

On the bright side, however, Jack Dougherty looked much more like himself on Saturday compared to his outing on Sunday against Oral Roberts. He will likely stay in the rotation moving forward.

2. It's hard to keep this offense down.

Everyone knew this offense was pretty special coming into the season, but it has now responded multiple times to adversity.

Every day at the ballpark won't result in 10-plus runs for the Rebels, but when the bats have an off-day like they did on Friday, it's important to respond in a positive way. Ole Miss did that again this weekend when it blew out Auburn on Saturday to secure the series win.

If Ole Miss can find some consistent starting pitching on the weekends, this team will be hard to beat even on its bad days at the plate.

3. Road series wins in the SEC are difficult to find. Get them when you can.

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but even with the poor performance on Friday, coming home with a road series win is a positive for the Rebels.

Sure, there are concerns that will have to be addressed moving forward, but getting as many series wins as you can, especially on the road, is the ultimate goal, one that Ole Miss accomplished on opening weekend.

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