OXFORD | The first priority of these early weekends is obviously winning games, but for Ole Miss, setting up its pitching for the rest of the season is also a focal point.

The Rebels, who are replacing two weekend starters from last season and return only two pitchers with SEC starting experience, are in the early stages of defining roles, as VCU (2-2) comes to town for a weekend series that begins at 4 p.m. Friday and continues at noon each of the next two days.

No. 3 Ole Miss (4-0) is keeping Derek Diamond, John Gaddis and Drew McDaniel in the weekend rotation, in that order. The trio combined for a 2.84 ERA in 12.2 innings over the opening-weekend sweep of Charleston Southern.

The Rebels are tackling the difficult balance of getting a lot of arms experience while also making sure the sample sizes are large enough to be relevant. That has been complicated with three straight shortened games. Ole Miss has only played 20 out of 27 possible defensive innings the last three games — two run-rules and a rain-shortened game.

The Rebels have thrown 11 pitchers so far, and closer Brandon Johnson has yet to pitch.

“It’s one of the things discussed beforehand and we don’t have to do it, but I get it,” Bianco said of the run-rule being in effect. “It’s nice to have the work, and I understand that part of it, but it’s chilly and a long day, and I don’t know how many people enjoy it when there’s a 10-run spread either way.

“It was difficult (on Wednesday) to not get (Johnson) in. At the end the way it was with the game and the rain, it was ridiculous, yeah, I promise you’ll see him this weekend. In one of the three games.”

The only two pitchers with multiple appearances so far this year are Jack Washburn and Dylan DeLucia. Washburn threw an inning on Friday to wet his feet prior to the midweek start against Arkansas State, and DeLucia threw an inning Sunday against the Buccaneers and 1.2 innings Wednesday against the Red Wolves.

Of the 11 pitchers with work, only two have just one inning this season. That was a point of emphasis for Bianco coming into the season after last season when too many pitchers threw too few innings.

Last season, through four games, Ole Miss had thrown 16 pitchers and six of those had thrown one complete inning for fewer.

“It’s a delicate balance,” Bianco said in the preseason. “I think last year I did a poor job, not the starters necessarily, but with the bullpen and finding the right guys. We had so many guys that I looked up and 19 or 20 guys had stats.

“When you’re playing four times a week and pitching 19 guys, there are a lot of one innings and one innings and that’s not a great sample size. It doesn’t benefit them. They don’t get opportunities to extend and pitch out of jams and show what they can do. Where their roles are going to be.”

In addition to Johnson, Ole Miss hasn’t pitched Jackson Kimbrell, Wes Burton or Josh Mallitz, three returners who had 31.1, 17.2 and 27 innings, respectively, last season. Bianco hasn’t mentioned those three much to this point, but that may or may not mean anything.

Kimbrell is one of just four left-handed pitchers on the roster, alongside Gaddis, Luke Ellis and Hunter Elliott.

Max Cioffi is in the final stages of Tommy John recovery and should be active sometime in late March. He has 64 career innings.

VCU is went 1-2 over the opening weekend in Winston-Salem, N.C., beating Lafayette (13-3) and losing to Rider (7-6) and Wake Forest (6-4). The Rams evened their record on Tuesday with an 8-3 win over Longwood.

The Rams have made the NCAA Tournament nine times in the 22 years of the super regional format and were in the Starkville Regional a season ago after winning 38 games and finishing with the No. 31 RPI.

The Rams are again picked to win their conference.

VCU lost a good bit of its firepower from a season ago offensively but returns Tyler Locklear, who was the Atlantic-10 Player of the Year and led the Cape League in home runs this past summer. He had a 1.201 OPS and .505 on-base percentage in 2021.

The rotation features three left-handers this weekend, as the Rams seem to be still piecing things together.

Jack Masloff gets the ball today. He threw three innings and allowed three hits and no earned runs with five strikeouts and one walk in a start against Lafayette last Saturday.

Tomorrow’s starter, Maddison Furman, started Sunday against Wake Forest and allowed two runs on three hits in two innings.

On Sunday, VCU is going with Campbell Ellis. The 6-foot-4 sophomore threw three innings against Rider on opening day and then four innings against Longwood on Tuesday. He hasn’t allowed a run this season.

Of the three, only Furman had started a game prior to this season. He had six starts in 2021.

Tyler Davis may be VCU’s best arm. He had a 9-2 record out of the bullpen and was an All-A-10 Freshman last season. He’s allowed three runs in five innings with six strikeouts so far this year.