No. 5 Ole Miss Dominates Charleston Southern in Baseball Season Opener

OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss offense scored in bunches, and Derek Diamond was effective as the Rebels dominated Charleston Southern 9-3 on Friday.

Diamond put in five innings of work, tossing 77 pitches and accumulating eight strikeouts. He also walked two Buccaneers and allowed two earned runs in the fourth inning.

Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco talked of the difficulty for pitchers in cold weather when their offense stays on the field for significant amounts of time.

"I thought [Diamond] was good, especially early," Bianco said. "I know he's disappointed he gave up the couple of runs, and it was the epitome of the bad inning: a walk, HBP and an infield hit. It's a tough day to pitch today. For Derek, you want the runs, but long innings means he's sitting in the cold for a long time."

"It felt good," Diamond said. "Opening day and getting the starting nod, there was some juice. Not my best and definitely have some room to improve, but it's day one, and we got a great win."

Pitching in relief of Diamond were Jack Washburn, Mitch Murrell and Mason Nichols. Murrell gave up a solo shot in his inning of work in the seventh, and Washburn, an Oregon State transfer, saw his first appearance in an Ole Miss uniform on Friday.

Tim Elko accounted for the Rebels' lone home run of the day, a solo shot that came in the sixth inning. Justin Bench and TJ McCants had the most hits of the day with two, and Jacob Gonzalez and Reagan Burford drove home the most runs with two apiece. Five different Rebels recorded hits in the win.

Elko was certainly a big story in college baseball last season after he returned to a designated hitter role after an ACL tear, and now that he is back at 100 percent, he picked up where he left off in 2021.

"We saw it when he wasn't 100 percent," Bianco said, "so it's nothing different than we've seen. He's special, so I'm glad he's on our team and wearing our uniform."

In all, Ole Miss had seven hits and drew six walks. The Rebels scored in five different innings on Friday, including a run or more in each inning from the first through the fourth.

Photos courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss second baseman Peyton Chatagnier admitted that scoring early and often helped some of the nerves that come with opening day.

"It does relieve a little bit of tension, for sure," Chatagnier said. "I think we're really well-equipped. We only had seven hits, so it wasn't our best day at the plate."

Chatagnier also stole a base on Friday night after dealing with a nagging hamstring injury in 2021.

"It was awesome," Chatagnier said. "I joked with my dad that I already have one more steal than I had last year."

The Rebels return home on Saturday to take on the Buccaneers in game two of opening weekend. First pitch is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network+. John Gaddis will get the ball for the Rebels and will duel against Charleston Southern's Jerry Couch.

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