HottyToddy.com’s Daily Ole Miss Sports Roundup

HottyToddy.com is giving readers a roundup of all the commentary and information about the Ole Miss Rebels from various publications around the Web.

Readers will be able to check out the latest information in a single post every day throughout the year. Here at HottyToddy.com, we are doing all the leg work to find the information that people may want to hear about Ole Miss sports.

Today’s roundup features Ole Miss Sports and The Rebel Walk.com.

Ole Miss to Host Baylor in SEC/Big 12 Challenge

Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss will host Big 12 foe Baylor next season, as the matchups for the Big 12/SEC Challenge Presented by Sonic were announced Tuesday.

The Rebels will host the Bears, who have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen three times in the last seven seasons, Jan. 28 at The Pavilion at Ole Miss. The two teams have only one previous meeting, with Baylor winning a neutral-site affair in 1971.

The other matchups – which will again be staged on a common bye date of Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017, during the conference schedule – are headlined by a potential top-10 matchup between No. 4 Kansas at No. 3 Kentucky. The fourth annual event matches all 10 of the Big 12 members against 10 of the 14 programs from the Southeastern Conference.  Each conference will host five games with the network assignments and tip times to be announced at a later date.

Seven of the 10 games will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2, one game on ESPN2 or ESPNU and two games will air on ESPNU. All 10 games will also be available via WatchESPN.

ESPN’s College GameDay Covered by State Farm – the Saturday roadshow that discusses the top storylines of the college basketball season – will originate from one of the Challenge games, to be announced at a later date.

Schedule highlights:

• The same teams return from last year’s Challenge with only one rematch – Kentucky and Kansas, who played to a 90-84 overtime Jayhawk victory.

• Georgia is appearing in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge for the second time, while Arkansas, LSU, Tennessee and Texas A&M are playing for the third time.

• All of the Big 12 schools plus the SEC’s Auburn, Kentucky, Florida, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt have participated in each of the last three Challenges.

• Two potential top-25 matchups include No. 4 Kansas at No. 3 Kentucky and No. 19 Texas A&M at No. 15 West Virginia.

• First-time Challenge matchups for Texas-Georgia, Baylor-Ole Miss, Texas A&M-West Virginia, Florida-Oklahoma, Iowa State-Vanderbilt, Arkansas-Oklahoma State, Auburn-TCU and LSU-Texas Tech.

• Kansas State and Tennessee last met in the Challenge in 2014.

• Alabama, Mississippi State, Missouri and South Carolina will again not be competing in this year’s Challenge.

Date: Sat, Jan. 28

Matchups:

Texas at Georgia

Baylor at Ole Miss

No. 4 Kansas at No. 3 Kentucky

No. 19 Texas A&M at No. 15 West Virginia

Florida at No. 18 Oklahoma

No. 22 Iowa State at Vanderbilt

Kansas State at Tennessee

Arkansas at Oklahoma State

Auburn at TCU

LSU at Texas Tech

Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports

Three Rebels Earn All-SEC Accolades

Ole Miss catcher Henri Lartigue
Photo by Joshua McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics@olemisspix

The Ole Miss baseball team had three Rebels earn All-Southeastern Conference honors, the conference office announced Monday afternoon (May 23). Juniors J.B. Woodman and Henri Lartigue was tabbed First Team All-SEC, while sophomore Tate Blackman collected Second Team All-SEC accolades. Woodman also made the SEC All-Defensive Team.

All three Rebels were named All-SEC for the first time in their respective careers. For the 21st time in program history, Ole Miss has three all-conference honorees. The Rebels have had at least three All-SEC players in four of the last five seasons.

As a team captain, Woodman has led Ole Miss all season long. The Orlando, Florida native hit .319 during the regular season with team highs in runs scored (47), RBI (49) and slugging percentage (.565), cracking the SEC’s top 10 in all three categories. He leads the SEC with 13 home runs and also has 12 doubles to his credit. Woodman has shown his speed on the base path, leading the Rebels with 11 stolen bases. He certainly earned his spot on the SEC All-Defensive Team, recording nine outfield assists throughout the season, which ranks second nationally. Seven of his nine outfield assists occurred at the plate to prevent runs from scoring. Against LSU, Woodman threw three runners out at the plate and hit .500 to claim the title of National Hitter of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Leading all SEC catchers with a .348 batting average, including an impressive .371 clip in conference games, Lartigue earned his spot on the All-SEC First Team. The Southaven, Mississippi native has tallied 10 games with at least three hits, pacing the Rebel bats. The Ole Miss catcher has also come through in the clutch with a pair of walk-off hits this season. Against Auburn (April 24), Lartigue smacked a base hit to knock in the Rebels’ fourth run of the ninth inning and cap a 6-5 comeback victory. Two weeks ago versus Kentucky (May 13), he belted a deep fly to right field that cleared the fence for a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Rebels a 7-5 win. Lartigue was also the only SEC catcher to be named a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, an honor given to the top catcher in college baseball.

Blackman has had a big sophomore campaign, leading the Rebels with 68 hits to go along with a .332 average. The Altamonte Springs, Florida native leads the SEC with seven sacrifice flies, a mark that ranks 15th in the country. Blackman started all 56 regular season games at second base and helped Ole Miss turn a SEC-best 30 double plays in conference games.  Blackman’s batting average is second on the team along with 42 runs scored and 19 multi-hit games. Reaching base in 52 of the 56 games, he has tallied 37 RBI throughout the 2016 campaign.

The Ole Miss baseball team is in Hoover, Alabama preparing for the Southeastern Conference Tournament. Ole Miss will be the No. 7 seed at the tournament and play in the single-elimination first round on Tuesday, May 24. The Rebels’ opponent will be the No. 10 seed Georgia Bulldogs. First pitch is scheduled for approximately 1 p.m. CT.

For the latest news and updates involving Ole Miss Baseball, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissBSB, on Facebook at Ole Miss Baseball and on Instagram at olemissbsb.
2016 SEC Baseball Awards

Player of the Year: Boomer White, Texas A&M
Pitcher of the Year: Logan Shore, Florida
Freshman of the Year: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State
Coach of the Year: John Cohen, Mississippi State
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Derek Lance, Tennessee

First-Team All-SEC
C: Henri Lartigue, Ole Miss
1B: Nathaniel Lowe, Mississippi State
2B: Ryne Birk, Texas A&M
3B: Boomer White, Texas A&M
SS: Kramer Robertson, LSU
OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State
OF: J.B. Woodman, Ole Miss
OF: Gene Cone, South Carolina
*DH/UT: Jack Kruger, Mississippi State
*DH/UT: Bryce Jordan, LSU
SP: Logan Shore, Florida
SP: Dakota Hudson, Mississippi State
RP: Shaun Anderson, Florida

Second-Team All-SEC Team
C: Mike Rivera, Florida
*1B: Peter Alonso, Florida
*1B: Evan White, Kentucky
2B: Tate Blackman, Ole Miss
3B: Nick Senzel, Tennessee
SS: Dalton Guthrie, Florida
OF: Anfernee Grier, Auburn
OF: Bryan Reynolds, Vanderbilt
OF: Jeren Kendall, Vanderbilt
DH/UT: Brent Rooker, Mississippi State
SP: Kyle Wright, Vanderbilt
SP: Clarke Schmidt, South Carolina
RP: Mark Ecker, Texas A&M

Freshman All-SEC Team
*C: Chris Cullen, South Carolina
*C: Michael Curry, Georgia
1B: LT Tolbert, South Carolina
2B: Deacon Liput, Florida
3B: Jonathan India, Florida
SS: Connor Kaiser, Vanderbilt
OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State
OF: Antoine Duplantis, LSU
OF: Chandler Taylor, Alabama
DH/UT: Ethan Paul, Vanderbilt
SP: Braden Webb, South Carolina
SP: Adam Hill, South Carolina
RP: Sean Hjelle, Kentucky

SEC All-Defensive Team
C: Mike Rivera, Florida
1B: Evan White, Kentucky
*2B: Cole Freeman, LSU
*2B: Ryne Birk, Texas A&M
3B: Nick Senzel, Tennessee
SS: Dalton Guthrie, Florida
OF: Buddy Reed, Florida
OF: Anfernee Grier, Auburn
OF: J.B. Woodman, Ole Miss
*P: Jordan Sheffield, Vanderbilt
*P: Kyle Simonds, Texas A&M
*P: Dustin Beggs, Kentucky

* – Denotes a tie in voting. Ties are not broken.

Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports

Mike Bianco believes Ole Miss playing its best baseball heading into SEC tourney

Coach Mike Bianco
Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Communications/Kevin Bain

With Saturday’s 3-2 win over Texas A&M in game three of the series, Mike Bianco hopes his Ole Miss team grew up a little more–especially with the 10^th-seeded Georgia Bulldogs awaiting the Rebels in Hoover, Alabama.

Prior to Saturday’s win, Ole Miss was on the verge of heading into the Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament with four-straight losses–a midweek loss against Arkansas State and defeats in the first two games of the series to No. 1 Texas A&M–something Bianco didn’t want hanging over the team’s head at the start of postseason.

“We are excited to start postseason,” Bianco said Monday in the SEC Baseball Coaches’ Media Teleconference.

The Tuesday afternoon matchup against Georgia is a single-elimination game, meaning the losing team’s time in Hoover will officially be over. Bianco believes his Rebels are ready to make a run in the league tournament.

Another terrific year, especially for us, a tremendous second half of the season in SEC play. I think we’re playing our best baseball at this time of the year. — Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco

Courtesy of Courtney Smith and the Rebel Walk.com

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