Notes: Rebs hold steady in polls after series win at Long Beach

OXFORD | Ole Miss maintained its spot in the rankings despite losing its first game of the season.

The Rebels checked in at No. 9 in D1Baseball.com’s top 25 poll on Monday for the third straight week. The respected rankings, led by national writers Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt, typically don’t penalize teams for losing games as long as they win series, and Ole Miss did that, back-ending the set with Long Beach State 4-3 and 12-1 after falling 4-3 in the opener.

The Southeastern Conference is well represented with five of the top 10 teams, led by Florida at No. 1. Arkansas (No. 5), Kentucky (No. 6) and Texas A&M (No. 10) join the Rebels in the part of the poll.

“That was a nice test across the country against a team that plays a dramatically different style of baseball than Ole Miss sees in the SEC, in an extreme pitcher's park,” Fitt said during D1Baseball’s weekly chat, responding to a question.

“You're right that Long Beach isn't as good as last year, but it's still a nice test to go into Blair Field, and Ole Miss showed some resilience after losing the first game with (Ryan) Rolison on the mound. All those young guys are maturing nicely. Feel good about our top-10 ranking on the Rebels, think they are that kind of club.”

Ole Miss moved from 19th to No. 9 in the USA TODAY coaches poll and remained in No. 12 per Baseball America.

The Rebels have a busy week with a five-game homestand. Ole Miss hosts Austin Peay and Little Rock Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, and Eastern Illinois is the weekend opponent. Both midweek contests are at 6:30 p.m.

Houston Roth will make his third consecutive Tuesday start, and freshman Jordan Fowler will make his first career start against the Trojans on Wednesday.

Tim Rowe has been nursing a hamstring injury for the past two weeks, but he picked up a pinch hit double during his one at-bat Sunday at Long Beach State.

The senior pinch hit for Anthony Servideo with the Rebels up 11-1 at the time, and he hit an 0-1 pitch into the right-field corner. He’s still hobbled, but he easily made it to second base. Jacob Adams pinch ran for him and scored a batter later on Grae Kessinger’s double.

“He’s OK to do that,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “You can tell it’s still tender, but we have to make sure we continue to get him at-bats. He hasn’t swung enough in games, so we have to make sure we don’t go too long without using him or it’s going to be tough for him when we start conference play.”

Rowe has two hits and three walks in 13 plate appearances this season. He began the year as the favorite to be the designated hitter against right-handed pitchers, but 11 of those 13 times to step in the box came against Winthrop the first weekend of the series.

He hurt the hamstring the following Monday and didn’t play until grounding out to the shortstop in the ninth inning of game one against the Dirtbags.

Ole Miss has a deep pitching staff with defined roles, but there’s a freshman gaining experience in low-leverage situations.

Max Cioffi, a right-hander from Chicago, hasn’t allowed a run or a hit in three innings this season. He was impressive Sunday in Southern California, inheriting men on first and second with no outs in the seventh inning.

Cioffi got ahead 1-2 on his first batter and fielded a grounder back to him, starting a 1-6-3 double play. He again got ahead 1-2 and forced a ground out to strand the two runners.

Cioffi came back out for the eighth and had to get out of his own trouble following two quick outs. He walked two and hit a batter to load the bases but picked up a strikeout on three straight pitches to again keep Long Beach from crossing the plate.

He also threw a scoreless inning in the middle game of the Tulane series.

“He’s a strike-thrower,” Bianco said. “He’s going to come in and fill up the strike zone. He pitches like he belongs, and one of the things you talk about — regardless of the score. When you get out there will you play and pitch like you belong? what a big jam he got out of.

"Even though the score was out of hand at that point, it’s first and second with no outs, and he gets out of it. That’s what you’re looking for, because as you know, you never have enough pitching. You want to make sure those guys gets some of those inning.”