How certain Rebels stack up statistically as halfway point nears

Batting average splits filled social media discussion on Tuesday, as Southern Miss twice brought in a left-hander to make Ole Miss switch hitter Thomas Dillard bat from the right side.

The first time it worked, but during the encore managerial move, Dillard turned a high fastball into a three-run home run, as the No. 4 Rebels (23-3) climbed back from a five-run deficit to win 7-6 against the No. 14 Golden Eagles.

Dillard entered the week hitting .179 against lefties and .400 against right-handers after being hitless in his first 16 plate appearances against left-handers this season. However, all signs point to that being a slump instead of an indictment. Dillard hit better against left-handers last season and has two home runs against that side in the past five games.

Some stats really matter and some are warped because of sample sizes or baseball weirdness that should even out over time. Below we’ll look at three players and list some relevant quick hits with Arkansas coming to town Thursday.

Chase Cockrell is hitting the ball hard, isn’t deviating his approach much in different situations and is getting a little lucky.

The junior already has twice as many doubles as last season — 6 to 3 — and has been arguably the Rebels’ most impactful hitter in recent weeks. Mike Bianco has started to trust him against pitching from either side, and it’s paying off to this point. Cockrell is hitting (prior to Tuesday) .464 with a 1.301 OPS against right-handers in 33 plate appearances and .400 with a 1.023 OPS in 26 plate appearances against left-handers.

He added a double on Tuesday that jump started Ole Miss offensively and has been a terror for opponents in the eight-hole of the lineup, reminiscent of Mark Wright in 2006.

The only mild concern is he has a .571 BABIP (batting average on balls in play), meaning that more than half of the fair balls he hits turn into base hits. Part of that is his quality contact, but he’s also finding some holes and will likely see some regression in that stat. A BABIP of .300 is typically a baseline in Major League Baseball.

Will Golsan started the season 2-for-18 and every ball seemed to find a glove for the first few weeks. His BABIP is currently at .282 and is trending upward after an excellent few games last week. The senior captain went 0-for-4 against Southern Miss but that broke a four-game run of him hitting .353 with a 1.095 OPS with four doubles, a triple and four runs scored.

He also went 3-for-5 with two doubles in the decisive game of the Texas A&M series.

Golsan hasn’t put together a string of huge games, but he’s made the most of opportunities. The New Hope, Mississippi, native is 3-for-4 with the bases loaded and is hitting .385 with runners in scoring position. He’s also 13-for-27 (.481) with two outs and leads Ole Miss with 13 two-out RBIs.

He’s fourth on the team in runs created and third in RBIs. For what it’s worth he’s also tied for the conference lead with four sacrifice flies.

In the same conversation as Cockrell, sophomore Cole Zabowski is making it difficult for Mike Bianco to take him out of the lineup.

The lefty entered the week hitting .311 with a .1043 OPS in 48 at-bats against right-handers and .312 with a .421 on-base percentage in 19 at-bats against left-handers. He’s second on the team in home runs and third in slugging percentage.

Zabowski struck out 26 times in 92 at-bats last season has struck out just 12 times in 65 at-bats in 2018. He had a five-game hit streak snapped on Tuesday. A BABIP of .297 shows that the improvement and progression of quality at-bats should be consistent as long as he continues to handle SEC pitching. He was 4-of-10 in the three games against Texas A&M.

Ole Miss is 17-0 in games against right-handed starters this season.

Nick Fortes against right-handers: .222/.350/.381. Against lefties: .400/.500/.704

Tim Elko, who hits right-handed, is hitting 94 points higher and has a .327 higher OPS against right-handed pitching.

Cooper Johnson is hitting .062 against lefties and .286 against right-handers.

Grae Kessinger is hitting .452 with a 1.210 OPS in 34 at-bats against lefties.

Ole Miss is second in the SEC in hitting with two outs (.319) and third in the SEC in hitting with runners in scoring position (.316).