OXFORD | Ole Miss is on three record paces offensively so far this season.
It wasn’t planned that way. Mike Clement will admit it, but the Rebels hitting coach is pleased with the overall output for his group at the one-fifth mark of the regular season. Ole Miss (10-1), winners of 10 straight, are up to No. 9 nationally and have done it with starting pitching, free passes and power.
Ole Miss faces Memphis at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The Rebels are on pace to break the school records for home runs, strikeouts and walks, a formula that’s been quite productive but lends to questions of sustainability as the season deepens.
"My default is that I’d like to sit in there and bang,” Clement said. “That lends to today’s day and age. I just think you have a way to win games that way. It’s how you beat good arms.
“Obviously I don’t want to punch out as much as we do because in college if you put the ball in play — even in the SEC — you’re going to get on base. Ozzie (Smith) isn’t playing shortstop at East Carolina. Force people to make plays. I’d like to be better.”
The power is a big part of the story. Ole Miss leads the nation with 21 home runs, as nine different players have homered and six have hit multiple long balls. Sunday’s win over Indiana is a prime example of that equalizer. Ole Miss hit three two-run home runs in a 9-5 victory but were just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and 3-for-15 with runners on base.
At its current pace, Ole Miss would hit ~105 regular season home runs, shattering the 1998 school record of 98. That team didn’t make the postseason but season stats do include all postseason games.
While the Rebels are hitting only .251 as a team, 11th best in the SEC, Ole Miss has walked 58 times and been hit by 14 pitches. It’s the third most walks in the conference per game, and this pace would inch past the 2019 team’s school record (351) if Ole Miss plays as many games.
“The walk numbers are likely going to drop some in league play, but we do have a knack for it, and we’re seeing it from some unexpected guys,” Clement said.
Anthony Servideo and Tyler Keenan were expected to walk a lot and have with 12 and six, respectively, and Cael Baker has walked (8) or been hit by a pitch (1) in 20 percent of his plate appearances. Peyton Chatagnier has also walked six times.
All that above is good, but the downside of the situation is the strikeouts. Ole Miss has 109 offensive strikeouts through 11 games — averaging 9.9 per game and a rate of 24.8 percent of plate appearances. The school record is 510 strikeouts in 1999, a team that struck out 8.2 times per game and 20 percent of plate appearances.
Last season Ole Miss struck out 7.38 times per game and 18.1 percent of plate appearance. The best quality at-bat example may be the 2014 team that finished third nationally. That season Ole Miss struck out on only 14 percent of plate appearances. But there’s give and take, as that group walked only 226 times in 69 games.
Clement mentioned that Ole Miss has run up pitch counts quickly on opposing arms. Even in the loss to Louisville, the Rebels got All-American Reid Detmers out of the game after five innings. There’s also some solace in Ole Miss’ non conference schedule being more representative of future opponents than some other league teams. Six of Ole Miss’ 11 games have been against NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago.
“There’s a lot of really good,” Clement said “The competition we’ve played on the whole is better than conference average so far. It’s still a small sample size, but we know more since we played Louisville that weekend and went to East Carolina.”
The key is balance, as Ole Miss has players who profile fine with this current statistical situation, while others need to put the ball in play and be tougher with two strikes, Clement said. The correct mix makes things more sustainable as the year progresses.
The three-outcome conversation permeates Major League Baseball, as stats suggest a growing percentage of at-bats end in strikeouts, home runs or walks, and Clement does believe that’s bleeding into lower levels, though indirectly.
“At the youth levels mechanics have changed a little bit,” Clement said. “It’s become more of a reality not because people are trying to copy but because guys are talking about being on plane and launch angle. I’m all about analytics, but I fall somewhere in the middle of all that. A lot of players have been taught those things. It’s trickled down but I’ll hold firm we have to be a little different at spots. We have to put the ball in play with spots in our order. Other spots let’s bang it.”
Clement mentioned former shortstop Grae Kessinger as a good example of an adjustment toward launch angle but the way it improved wasn’t a direct path. Kessinger came to Ole Miss with a swing that needed to add lift. Kessinger had seven extra base hits as a freshman and then 26 and 25, respectively, his final two seasons.
“Grae was anti-launch angle, swinging down,” Clement said. “I felt like I needed to even out his swing or create some launch angle. So we did specific drills but mentioned the word launch angle. There’s so much more involved from an approach standpoint.
“It’s what we’re doing. Let’s walk and hit home runs but let’s drive pitch counts up and grind through at-bats. Don’t give them away. That’s the key.”
