Ole Miss held No. 21 East Carolina without an earned run on Saturday, knocking off the host Pirates, 2-1, to move to 2-0 in the Keith LeClair Classic. The No. 15 Rebels (9-1) have won nine straight and face Indiana on Sunday at 10 a.m. The Hoosiers are also unbeaten on the weekend.

Derek Diamond is the scheduled starter for Ole Miss against Indiana.

Gunnar Hoglund’s increased poise and improved arsenal have been a major storyline so far this season, and Saturday proved both those things in spades. The sophomore scattered five hits and struck out eight with one walk in six innings, throwing 97 pitches with only an inning or so of trouble.

Ole Miss committed errors on the first two plays of the game defensively, but Hoglund stayed under control and limited the trouble to one run. East Carolina wouldn’t score again. Hoglund’s fastball has more life than a year ago and sits in the low 90s while the offseason work to improve his slider is paying off greatly.

It’s a legitimate swing-and-miss offering that also serves well early in counts. He can flash the curve and changeup, but the fastball and slider are both trending toward plus options.

“It was tough offensively,” East Carolina head coach Cliff Godwin said. “Gunnar Hoglund is one of the best in the country. He turned down a million dollars to come to school. The fastball is unbelievable and he makes it so tough on us. We were trying to create anything to get his pitch count up.”

Mike Bianco said “it starts with your ace,” when talking about Hoglund on Saturday, and it was that kind of outing. A bloop and a cue shot off the end of the bat gave ECU two on with not outs in the fourth, but after a ground out and an intentional walk, Hoglund picked up a three-pitch strikeout and a fielder’s choice to leave the bases loaded.

“Bleeders, lucky hits, that happens,” Hoglund said.

Hoglund as a freshman let up some behind in counts and didn’t pitch effectively to the corners. A year later he there’s a confidence to his pitching instead of analyzing too much. He fights back into counts with hard, running pitches instead of get-over fastballs to avoid walks. He struck out the side in the second and had a strikeout in all but one inning.

Closing in on 100 pitches, Hoglund finished his day with two straight 1-2 count strikeouts, using the slider to get hitters leaning and then coming back in with fastballs.

It was merely a big moment at the time, but Hoglund getting Alec Burleson to pop up in the first inning stemmed what could have been a big inning and changed the tone of the game.

With no outs and a runners on the corners, the preseason All-America selection got under a pitch and painlessly retired. A ball in the gap there scores two runs and changes everything. Hoglund finished the inning with a ground out and a strikeout, and Ole Miss scored the next half inning.

Tim Elko scored Kevin Graham from first with a double off the wall in the second inning. Graham was behind 1-2 before three straight balls put him aboard. Elko has pulled off some pitches in the early part of the season but drove the Tyler Smith pitch into the gap. He’s dangerous with that approach. The key is to avoid the breaking balls away that lead to fastballs in because he’s leaning a little bit or can’t get the barrel to it.

Jerrion Ealy is still somewhat lost at the plate, but he takes pitches and fights up there. It’s a good sign for when he’s more comfortable, but he has to keep mechanically sound. The swing gets long and unproductive too often. But with two strikes in the second inning, he did a nice job with a sacrifice fly to score Elko with what was the winning run.

ECU starter Smith didn’t have great stuff on Saturday, hanging breaking balls and getting behind way too often. He only threw 46 strikes in 86 pitches, and with the breaking ball not dangerous, Ole Miss could have gotten to more fastballs. But on a cold, windy night, the Rebels swung through too many pitches and didn’t have great swing selection at times. Ole Miss struck out 12 times.

Max Cioffi may be the answer to Ole Miss’ potentially one-arm short bullpen situation with Greer Holston's struggles and Tyler Myers' injury. Cioffi, who had an opponent batting average of nearly .300 last season, has allowed only three batters to reach base in five innings this season without giving up a run. He’s struck out seven without a walk. Cioffi is filling up the strike zone and using multiple pitches throughout the count. After Austin Miller and Taylor Broadway both threw on Friday, Cioffi gave two necessary relief innings to keep the Rebels with the lead.

Braden Forsyth got his third save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning. He walked the leadoff hitter but came back with a three-pitch strikeout. After a double play ball that should have ended the game, he got ahead 0-2 and coaxed a groundout. The stuff is maybe the best of any Ole Miss reliever, but his command can get away from him. The upside is huge, and he’s showing a lot of strength mentally in adverse situations. Batters aren’t compiling on to each other, and that’s great new for Ole Miss since Bianco is using him currently as the closer.

Ole Miss held ECU to 1-for-17 with runners on base.