When Drew McDaniel coaxed Luke Hancock into a fly out with the second pitch of the sixth inning, Ole Miss seemed to be in control of the game, the series and an inside track to a national seed.
That would be McDaniel’s final pitch, and the Rebels’ two-run lead wouldn’t last past the half inning. Three different relievers entered, five runs scored and one growing problem personified with Mike Bianco’s decisions over the 10-minute timespan.
State’s rally against the Ole Miss bullpen held up with a 7-5 win that clinched the series for the Bulldogs and dropped the Rebels to 9-6 at the halfway point of SEC play. Ole Miss has lost three straight series — all to teams with regional host aspirations. State is 10-5 in the SEC, winners of 8 of its last 9 league games.
"(McDaniel) was terrific and in the sixth inning we just couldn’t get off the field, had to use three pitchers to get two outs,” Bianco said during his postgame radio interview. “It’s unfortunate. We just couldn’t get to (Taylor) Broadway, hopeful to get to the seventh inning, couldn’t and had to go to him early. Just a shame.”
Bianco took out McDaniel after 91 pitches and two-run work in 5.1 innings. That's at or beyond the pitch-count threshold he's been able to stay effective with this season.
The goal was for freshman Josh Mallitz to get two outs and then hand the ball to Broadway. But instead, State sent a single up the middle and two more through the right side, ending Mallitz’s day following just eight pitches that loaded the bases.
Austin Miller replaced Mallitz and got a four-pitch strikeout for the second out and a chance to hold on to the lead, but an 0-2 single tied it, and an infield single followed, moving Bianco to go to Broadway in the frame, despite wanting to avoid that prior to the seventh inning.
Broadway gave up a triple that cleared the bases and sent State to the series win. The Ole Miss closer, who has been impressive all season, pitched the final 2.1 innings without giving up a run, but the inherited runners made the rest of the stat line meaningless.
With an entire bullpen fresh, Bianco’s decision to go to Mallitz is both puzzling and indicative of a bullpen problem that’s plaguing the Rebels more and more by the week.
The Rebels just lost a series despite their three starters combining to allow five earned runs in 21.1 innings.
The sample size is small for SEC innings and Ole Miss reliever appearances, but such is life with college baseball.
Wes Burton (2.70 in 3.1 innings) is the only UM reliever besides Broadway (2.31 in 11.2 innings) to have an SEC ERA under 5.40 this season.
Bianco hasn't given Burton a true high-leverage opportunity, and his velocity is down from the fall, but he fact that he’s getting outs has to matter — and with his extension, the 90 MPH fastball average plays up a tick. Here’s the list of Ole Miss bullpen options and their appearances (minimum of 3) in league games and corresponding SEC-only ERAs.
Taylor Broadway - 8 appearances, 2.31
Wes Burton - 3, 2.70
Derek Diamond - 5, 7.36 (four are starts)
Tyler Myers - 5, 10.50
Austin Miller - 5, 11.12
Jackson Kimbrell - 4, 11.57
Josh Mallitz - 6, 18.00
In SEC play when anyone but Doug Nikhazy, Gunnar Hoglund or McDaniel is pitching for Ole Miss: 10.23 ERA, 2.14 WHIP, .350 batting average against, .590 slugging against and 1.021 OPS against.
Bridging to Broadway is a hell of an issue right now, an issue that obviously falls at the feet of the staff and the players. Max Cioffi’s injury significantly hurts, and Braden Forsyth has only pitched once in league play, but other options haven’t consistently performed, for whatever reasons.
Moving forward someone has to help because starters aren’t always going to eat up more than 21 of the 27 innings, including a complete game Saturday that gave the rest of the roster the day off.
That’s the difficult-to-understand part of Sunday’s sixth inning. While in a perfect world, Broadway could wait to enter the game, nothing about the bullpen has been perfect.
Mallitz is going to be really good for the Rebels before he’s done, but that was a tough situation while the best option was rested and ready.
Going straight to Broadway would have given Ole Miss its best chance to eat a significant number of outs, potentially add on to the lead and shorten the game while avoiding MSU closer Landon Sims. If he couldn’t finish all 11 outs, then so be it. Worry about later, later.
Broadway hadn’t pitched in seven days, and he went four innings against TCU the first week of the season.
How to get to him on a typical weekend is the most pressing problem for the Rebels, but pressing the wrong buttons with him available is what overshadows it all as Ole Miss must regroup after missing a needed resume line in Starkville.
