Notes: Ryan Olenek riding multi-hit streak as Rebels stay hot offensively

OXFORD | Ryan Olenek dislocated a finger on his right hand at Texas A&M two weekends ago, causing him to swing with one fewer finger on the bat and run the bases with a protective guard that resembles an oven mitt.

Considering his tear since then, maybe the slight change at the plate should become permanent.

Olenek handled Arkansas pitching during the three-game series between top-five teams, going 7-for-12 with three hits in the middle game and two in both first and last matchups of the week with the Razorbacks.

[Related: Rebels outlast Arkansas to take series]

“I make fun of Olenek a lot because he’s always dinged up and he wants to tell you he’s dinged up,” hitting coach Mike Clement said. “You have to rib that guy. I think he wanted attention, but he’s swung it great. After his start where he was down in the .260s for the longest time and now it’s up 100 points and he’s kind of the catalyst. The guy you love to have on your team and if you’re in the other dugout you hate him.”

Ole Miss (25-4, 6-3) has won each of its first three SEC series and has a one-game lead over LSU and Arkansas in the SEC West. Florida and Georgia are a game ahead of the Rebels in the overall race. Ole Miss hosts LSU and Georgia later in the season, and with the unbalanced SEC schedules the Rebels and Gators don’t meet in the regular season.

Olenek has five-straight multi-hit games, as he had two each against the Aggies to close the series and Southern Miss in midweek action. The Florida native started the season 5-for-22 but had at least one hit in all but three games since March 3.

He was hitting .227 on February 25 but is now at .358 — second on the team next to Chase Cockrell at .403. Olenek has only struck out nine times in 106 at-bats. That’s the fewest strikeouts among regulars and the second-most at-bats behind Will Golsan.

Ole Miss is hitting .299 with an .870 OPS as a team.

The Southeastern Conference is using a coach-catcher communication device during league games to signal pitches in audibly and hopefully speed up the action.

That appears to be happening, but twice during Ole Miss’ first nine conference games, lengthy reviews have negated any quicker pace.

At Texas A&M two Thursdays ago, there was a review system issue that halted the game for nearly 10 minutes, and multiple broadcast replays show that the call was still missed following the stop in play.

During the middle game against Arkansas, there were four stoppages to review five different plays. The correct call seemed to be made eventually in all counts, but the challenge rules didn’t allow for a clean process.

There are six replay situations that umpires have been able to take a look at for two seasons. Starting this year, the SEC is testing a system, where each coach gets two challenges to review an additional six situations. Starting with the eighth inning of each game, umpires can select to look at those coach-challenge situations even if a coach is out of challenges.

That latter scenario happened Friday, as Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn had to burn his final challenge on an obvious call at second base, as Olenek left early to try to tag up. In the eighth inning, Ole Miss catcher Nick Fortes threw out Carson Shaddy on a steal attempt. Arkansas third base coach Nate Thompson appeared to convince the umpires to look at the replay despite the Razorbacks being out of challenges.

“You have to be patient with it,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “I know it’s frustrating, but that’s why it’s experimental. Everybody is learning and the umps are trying. We all voted on it, and everybody wanted it in football and MLB and we wanted it but sometimes it’s frustrating. It’s better to get it right with the technology versus trying to keep the game fast.

“We don’t want the game delayed and I’m sure at the end of the season when we meet back up around Labor Day there will be a lot of discussion on what we can do to make it better.”