OXFORD | Ole Miss gets another piece of its pitching staff back this weekend.

Riley Maddox, who had Tommy John surgery last May, announced on Twitter that he’s medically cleared for the Georgia series that starts Friday. Maddox last pitched in a game on April 22, 2022, against Mississippi State.

“It’s been a long year, but I got cleared today,” Maddox Tweeted. “Ready to get after Georgia This weekend.”

The sophomore threw his first max-effort bullpen on March 27 and faced live hitters in practice last week. As a freshman, Maddox had a 5.24 ERA in 14 appearances with 16 strikeouts and nine walks in 22.1 innings. Opponents hit .289 off him. The right-hander allowed more than one run twice.

Maddox, prior to injury, threw his fastball in the low to mid 90s with a sinker and solid command. Head coach Mike Bianco has praised his rehabilitation work ethic throughout the process.

“He’s hit every mark and worked hard to help us this season,” Bianco said last month. “I don’t know if he’s way ahead of schedule, but he’s been on schedule the whole time. He’s looked good and felt good. At this point, it’s about feel and getting that back.”

The Rebels also got Hunter Elliott back from injury recently. The preseason All-American missed eight weeks with a sprained UCL and threw 49 pitches against LSU on Saturday, giving up five runs in one-plus innings. Elliott’s fastball maxed out at 90 MPH multiple times but sat in the mid to upper 80s.

The Rebels are 21-19 overall and 3-15 in the SEC with four league weekends remaining. Ole Miss is in last place in the conference by two games and are three games (and a tiebreaker) behind 12th-place Mississippi State. Twelve teams make the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama.

None of Ole Miss’ four remaining opponents have a winning conference record. Georgia is 7-11, Missouri is 5-13, Auburn is 7-11 and Alabama is 9-9.

Ole Miss faces Mississippi State in the Governor’s Cup at 6 p.m. in Pearl, Mississippi, at Trustmark Park. The Bulldogs took two of three from the Rebels in Starkville two weeks ago and have won 21 of the last 27 in the series dating back to 2016.

Freshman Grayson Saunier (2-2, 7.98, 36 K, 20 BB) gets the start for Ole Miss, while State turns to right-hander Evan Siary (0-1, 5.48, 22 K, 8 BB).

Saunier was a weekend starter the first six weeks of the season and then got the ball in midweek play against Memphis in back to back weeks. The lefty allowed one run in five innings to the Tigers on April 4 and six runs to Memphis in 2.1 innings on April 11.

The Rebels won last year’s Governor’s Cup, 5-2, a sign at that time of better play. Ole Miss lost a close series two of three at Arkansas the following weekend before going on the six-game SEC winning streak that saved the season and led to the NCAA Tournament and eventual national championship.

Ole Miss has relayed some of those themes to this current team during recent weeks of what is inarguably Bianco’s worst season since being hired in June 2000. The Rebels, under Bianco, have never finished worse than 13-17 in the SEC and only did that once, in 2011.

The 2022 team was 6-12 at this point of the season — three games ahead of the current record.

“We talked a little bit about last year, about what last year’s team was able to do,” Bianco said on Sunday. “We talked about it was leadership and guys showing up every single day. Being very consistent even when it was very bad. We probably didn’t know that when we were going through it and those weren’t lessons we were trying to teach them at that point.”