Ole Miss will face another freshman pitcher in its 7 p.m. (ESPN) CWS contest with TCU (48-17) tonight, but after managing just four hits in 7.1 innings against Texas Tech's Ryan Moseley on Tuesday the Rebels should know better than to take youth lightly.
Frogs freshman left-hander Tyler Alexander (10-3, 2.16 ERA) will face Rebels right-hander Sam Smith (5.4, 3.45).
Alexander is coming off his shortest outing since he returned to the rotation in April after allowing three runs on six hits in the Frogs’ Fort Worth Super Regional loss to Pepperdine.
In his previous six starts, the Southlake Carroll graduate had only allowed five earned runs in 46 innings, which included two complete games.
“I definitely want some redemption for my last outing,” said Alexander, who knows there’s much more at stake than his personal pride. “The atmosphere of the World Series and the pressure put on it by the amount of people and the fact that it’s an elimination game will do it on its own, regardless of how I pitched last week.”
Alexander came up huge in his two previous starts — throwing consecutive complete-game, one-run gems, in the Big 12 tournament title game and in TCU’s Fort Worth Regional-clinching game. Schlossnagle expects Alexander to respond.
“The fact that he struggled in his last outing makes me even more confident that he’ll be better,” he said.Ole Miss (47-20) has just six hits through its first two games of the College World Series. The Rebels will likely need to increase that production to get the win tonight. With the way T.D. Ameritrade Park has been playing (scoring has been a premium), the Rebels need to get some bats on the ball and get on base any way possible.
Sam Smith (5-4, 3.45 ERA) will pitch for the Rebels. Smith allowed 2 earned runs on 6 hits in 3.2 innings in his Super Regional start. Before that Smith lasted 4.2 innings in the Regional win over Washington. Ole Miss will likely need some innings from a bullpen that is mostly fresh thanks to a long outing from Chris Ellis Sunday night and eight more innings from Christian Trent in Tuesday's win over Texas Tech. Jeremy Massie, Aaron Greenwood and Scott Weathersby have each pitched an inning.