OXFORD | Ole Miss made easy work of Charleston Southern on Friday, knocking off the Buccaneers, 9-3, in the season opener for both teams.

The series continues with games at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

The Rebels built a six-run lead through three innings and scored in each of the first four innings. Ole Miss only had seven hits but benefited from five walks and four hit by pitches in the first three innings.

Here are some observations from the successful first game of 2022.

Derek Diamond had a solid opening start, allowing two runs on two hits in five innings. He struck out eight with two walks. Diamond started the game with a 94 MPH fastball and was 92-94 in the first frame. His fastball velocity fell to 90-91 for the next couple innings and then 86-88 after that.

The junior struck out five of the first six batters faced and multiple hitters in the fourth inning, as well. Diamond only threw one curve ball and the slider was inconsistent as he worked mostly off his fastball in plus counts, but he kept the slider and changeups out of trouble and away from the middle of the plate against an overmatched lineup that’s mostly adjusting to Division I play. The swing and miss only came from his fastball.

“I thought he was good, especially early,” Mike Bianco said of Diamond. “It’s a tough day to pitch today. Cold-wise it’s hard for the hitters, but for Derek we had long offensive innings and walks and long counts and he sat in the cold for a long time. It made it hard. The command to start innings wasn’t there, and then he’d get it going again.”

Charleston Southern hit a two-out, two-run double in the fourth for the lone blemish on Diamond.

Jack Washburn made his Ole Miss debut and struck out a hitter and faced four batters in a 17-pitch, 12-strike inning. The breaking ball was especially sharp, and he seemed to over throw a touch, likely with the emotion of a first appearance at a new place, leaving the ball up some, but the pitches were lively and the talent is evident. It was a nice warmup before getting the ball against Arkansas State on Tuesday.

“Bumped 92 and good breaking ball, we just wanted to get him one inning and get his feet wet,” Bianco said. “He’s a veteran in college but new to this. We let him get it out there and toe the rubber.”

Mitch Murrell, who Ole Miss would like to see fill a short-stint role out of the bullpen in the middle innings, allowed a run on two hits in two innings with four strikeouts. He gave up a one-out home run and a two-out single in his first inning. The fastball can get into the mid 90s, and the secondary pitches were good on Friday.

Bianco said it was exactly what they wanted him from him.

Kevin Graham extended his nation-leading streak of consecutive games reaching base to 61 on Friday. He went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts but turned a hit by pitch into a run scored.

Reagan Burford’s box score is serviceable with a walk and two sacrifice flies, but the at-bats and swings were really good and better than the results. He hit back-to-back line outs in his first two at-bats that scored a run each time and were hit hard. Despite a strikeout, the approach was good and it was a nice first impression since his freshman fall. He did boot a ball in the eighth inning at third base, as a cue-shot ground ball got past him.

Ole Miss committed four errors, including two by Jacob Gonzalez at shortstop.

“I thought we were really bad (defensively),” Bianco said. “We also ran to the wrong base a couple times. We were even bad in ways that the scoreboard doesn’t show.” He also pointed out Hayden Dunhurst was really good defensively.

The Rebels were 5-for-19 with runners on base and 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Ole Miss’ lone extra base hit was a Tim Elko solo home run in the sixth inning. That was Ole Miss’ only hit after the fourth inning. The Rebels were 2-for-13 against lefties.

Peyton Chatagnier was the spark plug he’s expected to be. After a season with a hamstring injury and not much running on the bases, he was good and stole a base early that led to a run.

Mason Nichols allowed a hit and struck out a batter in a scoreless ninth inning for the true freshman. He threw 10 of 15 pitches for strikes.

Ole Miss pitchers threw 66 percent strikes, while the Buccaneers threw 53 percent of their pitches for strikes.