OXFORD | Zack Phillips has certainly progressed during his first month as the middle man in Ole Miss’ rotation.
After two rough outings that included a combined nine runs and 12 hits in seven innings his first two weeks, the Grayson College transfer has found some footing. Late Saturday night he found his best rhythm of the season and became the bigger story despite his teammates battering UAB for much of the evening at Swayze Field.
The Rebels (11-3) scored 10 runs in the first four innings and clinched the weekend series with a 13-4 win that featured 12 hits and a plethora of erratic pitching from the Blazers. The game was a mismatch once the 45-minute delayed start reached the second inning, but as Ole Miss moves forward with its season, there’s the hope that Phillips’ outing is one that results in a pensive moment.
"There was trust in his stuff and him believing," Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. "The fastball was good on both sides of the plate. He pitched more like he's capable of pitching and not just the result. The way he mixed his pitches."
The left-hander went seven innings and retired nine of his last 10 batters of the game, shaking off an unearned run in the first inning and only allowed a solo home run in the third the rest of the way. He struck out seven with one walk which was the only blemish in his final three innings.
And maybe it's all because of his bullpen work this past week with pitching coach Carl Lafferty. Phillips and Lafferty tinkered with a slider during the routine midweek drill; he threw it six times, he said, in the bullpen. But without any game action coming into this one featuring the pitch, Ole Miss relied on the extra offering in the later part of Phillips' start.
"I started working on the new pitch Monday and it worked," Phillips said. "I wanted a pitch on the same plane as my fastball and at the end it broke. Laff taught me. It came out just like a fastball... I still threw curveballs for out pitches, but mostly it's a slider.
"This is a pitch I can live with."
Bianco said: "We hadn't thrown it in a game yet, and the first two innings the curveball was a good pitch for us. But as we extended the lead we threw the starter and man immediately it was firm. A lot of times from the bullpen to the game isn't easy. It's different from sitting behind your coach throwing it. He threw it with confidence."
Phillips threw 63 of 91 pitches for strikes and scattered six hits; two of them came in the first inning following the Cole Zabowski error on the second play of the game. The fastball was in the low 90s, and the secondary pitches were their sharpest in any of his four starts, noticeably better than the five-inning outing against Long Beach State last week.
Ole Miss committed six errors in the first 11 defensive innings of the series after having only six the first 12 games of the season.
It was likely an important start for Phillips, who is trying to hold off freshman Doug Nikhazy from the starting rotation. Nikhazy gave up three runs in five innings against East Carolina on Wednesday.
"Mentally I needed this with a strong seven innings," Phillips said.
Run support provided quite the security on Saturday, with a three-run second and five-run third punctuating the game. Cole Zabowski, a night after an early home run set thing in motion, had three hits — including a double — and four RBIs.
The Rebels hammered the Blazers with six extra base hits — five doubles and a two-run home run from Tyler Keenan.
UAB starter Eric O’Clair entered with a 2.00 ERA in nine innings but fewer than 50 percent of his 69 pitches went for strikes, and he threw four wild pitches that led to seven runs in two innings. The Blazers as a staff walked eight Rebels and hit two others.
"There's days like yesterday where we had a ton of good at-bats, but today we scored 13 on 12 hits because we were able to walk and that's good because walks win," Bianco said. "Credit to our guys for laying off pitches."
