OXFORD | With the season just more than five weeks away and national publications beginning their projections and lists of notables, Perfect Game is high on Ole Miss and its top pitcher.
A day after including sophomore Ryan Rolison on its First Team Preseason All-American list, the scouting and content online publication put the Rebels at No. 11 in its initial top 25 poll.
Ole Miss, which begins its season February 16 against Winthrop, will likely send Rolison out on opening day, as the draft-eligible left-hander is coming off a tremendous summer in the Cape League. With Orleans, he averaged 11.25 strikeouts per nine innings and a 1.93 ERA. He threw six shutout innings against Chatham in the Cape playoffs.
"The type of summer Ryan Rolison put together on the Cape does nothing but provide optimism for the Rebels, who are poised to open the season as one of the nation’s top teams," Perfect Game wrote. "With polished mechanics and command for a breaking ball that projects to be a consistent plus pitch, the left-handed Rolison has continued to see an uptick in his velocity as well, bumping as high as 95 mph without sacrificing any strike throwing ability. He finished last spring on a high note, with a near 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and showed more of the same during the summer."
Rolison averaged more than a strikeout per inning and had a 3.06 ERA during his debut season in Oxford. Multiple mock drafts have him going in the top 15 picks of the 2018 MLB Draft, and Baseball America has him as high as No. 11 to the Orioles.
The Jackson, Tennessee, native was joined on the First Team list by fellow SEC starters Brady Singer (Florida) and Casey Mize (Auburn). The Rebels avoid Florida because of the SEC rotating schedule but host the Tigers the second to last weekend of the regular season.
Ole Miss is one of seven SEC teams -- including five in the SEC West -- to be ranked by Perfect Game in the preseason top 25. In addition to not playing No. 1 Florida, Ole Miss also misses No. 8 Kentucky, giving the Rebels a potential break in the schedule.
The Rebels host No. 6 Arkansas and No. 12 LSU and travel to No. 25 Mississippi State and No. 15 Texas A&M.
