Notes: Phillips capitalizes on Ole Miss openings to seize Saturday spot

OXFORD | Zack Phillips saw opportunity with Ole Miss last June.

The Grayson College product was down to Ole Miss and Miami for his transfer services, and the Rebels’ lack of returning arms was a major factor in his decision to be a Rebel. That paid off on Tuesday, when Mike Bianco named Phillips the Saturday starter during the opening series versus Wright State.

“Zack is a junior college transfer who has electric stuff,” Bianco said. “We knew that from the fall, but he has really pitched well the last couple of weeks of intrasquads and has really pitched as well as anybody on the staff and has looked really dominant.”

Phillips, a left-hander, will sandwich between right-handed starters Will Ethridge and freshman Gunnar Hoglund, who is only the second true freshman to start as a pitcher on the opening weekend in Bianco’s 19 seasons. Mark Holliman did it for the Rebels in 2003 and Cody Satterwhite was scheduled to do it in 2006 before a rainout shortened the series.

Ole Miss lost 51 percent of its innings pitched from last season with the departure of the entire weekend rotation, as Ryan Rolison, Brady Feigl and James McArthur all moved on to professional baseball.

Phillips allowed two runs on four hits during 10 intrasquad innings spread over three starts this preseason. He had 11 strikeouts and five walks while holding teammates to a .138 batting average against and 0.90 WHIP. He punctuated the solid preseason with five scoreless innings on 64 pitches this past Saturday.

“My arm has been feeling great, and I’ve been filling up the zone,” Phillips said. “The curve has been working amazing and the changeup has been working all spring. I’m just ready to go out there and show them what I can do. I’m really getting into my rhythm. In the fall I was trying to figure out some things coming from a JUCO to a Division I, but I’m settling in here.”

He’ll implement a three-pitch mix with a fastball that sits in the low 90s typically. Inconsistency lowered his draft stock somewhat last summer, but he received multiple offers between rounds three and 10 before ultimately heading to Oxford.

Phillips went 10-1 as a sophomore at Grayson, striking out 77 in 70 innings for the upper-tier JUCO program that finished the season 39-17.

Phillips and Houston Roth were the top candidates for that Saturday role, and Roth should start against Arkansas State on Tuesday as well as be a major bullpen arm this weekend.

"It helped the fact, knowing that (Roth) has been such a big part of our bullpen the last couple of years,” Bianco said. “I liked having a left-hander between Ethridge and Hoglund. The other fact is how dominant Phillips looked the last two weekends entering the season. Roth is certainly a guy who we knew would be an option and still may be. It's the first weekend.”

Wright State is expected to win the Horizon League for the fourth time in the last five years, and the Raiders rely on an offense that returns most of its weapons from 2018 when they were eighth nationally averaging 7.8 runs per game.

Similar to offense with lots of returning offense but new roles on the mound, Wright State has to find replacements for two of its weekend starters and its top two relievers. Junior right-hander Bear Bellomy (7.34 ERA, 1.76 WHIP, .333 BAA) didn’t fare well last season, but D1Baseball.com reports he’s up to 95 MPH with his fastball and took a sizable jump during the offseason.

That site has Bellomy the preseason Horizon Pitcher of the Year to go with Horizon Preseason Player of the Year Peyton Burdick, who hit .347 with a 1.006 OPS last season. It’s worth noting only six Horizon League schools play baseball.

The Raiders went 39-17 and 22-6 in the conference last year. They have a tough early slate with Ole Miss and Oklahoma State as well as a tournament at East Carolina. Their best series win in 2018 was at ULL. Tulane swept Wright State to begin the season, and the Raiders lost 4-3 to Stanford and 11-5 to Baylor in the Palo Alto Regional.

Assuming Wright State lives up to expectations, it’s good schedule value for Ole Miss, with the Raiders finishing No. 69 in RPI last season.