Around The Horn: Three Takeaways From Ole Miss' Series Win Over UCF

Ole Miss baseball won two out of three over UCF over the weekend to improve to 10-1 on the young season.

The Rebels won a shootout of a game on Friday, squeaking out an 8-7 win over the Knights before falling 1-0 in extra innings on Saturday. Sunday's game was all Ole Miss, however, as the Rebels pulled away early to earn a 9-1 win.

Here are some of the key takeaways from Ole Miss' performance over the weekend.

1. John Gaddis is good, but the other starting pitchers need some improvement.

Mike Bianco said as much in his Sunday postgame press conference after Drew McDaniel lasted 2.1 innings in the Rebel win.

"[McDaniel] has to be more dominant," Bianco said. "He doesn't look comfortable out there, and we've all seen him better than that."

Replacing Doug Nikhazy and Gunnar Hoglund was never going to be easy, but the Rebels have turned to Derek Diamond, John Gaddis and Drew McDaniel early this year to try and fill those shoes. So far, Gaddis has had the best returns, going toe-for-toe with UCF's starter on Saturday despite his team falling in extra innings.

Derek Diamond got hit around a bit on Friday night, giving up six earned runs in 4.2 innings pitched and did not earn a decision. The non-conference portion of a schedule each year is about finding what works and what doesn't, but the Friday and Sunday arms need to be better moving forward.

2. One bad game doesn't mean a bad weekend.

Ole Miss' bats were ice cold on Saturday, mustering just three hits in a loss that took 12 innings.

If you found solace in anything out of Saturday's game, it could be that the Rebels, despite the bad performance at the plate, were still in the game throughout thanks to Gaddis and the bullpen. What was more important, however, was the bounce back we saw on Sunday.

After a three-hit performance in Saturday's loss, the Rebels put up 15 hits in their blowout win the following day.

"We came out and responded," Ole Miss catcher Hayden Dunhurst said. "Pitching was just as dominant as yesterday's was. We couldn't ask for anything better to end the weekend."

This offense is still the strength of the team, but we did see another positive for Ole Miss leaving the weekend, which brings us to our third takeaway.

3. The bullpen looked solid.

Ole Miss relievers gave up a combined two earned runs over the course of the weekend. After having to eat some major innings on Sunday, that's no small feat.

Brandon Johnson's eighth inning on Friday wasn't very pretty, but he came back in the ninth and sat down the side in order and threw a total of 66 pitches, a large amount for a closer.

There's also plenty to be said about Jackson Kimbrell, Dylan DeLucia, Hunter Elliott, etc., and the mood of the team entering the season about the bullpen has looked to be pretty accurate as of late. This unit appears to be deep if it can keep its current trajectory.

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