By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com
Ole Miss baseball closes out its 2023 home SEC conference slate at Swayze this weekend, playing host to the No. 23 Auburn Tigers. The first pitch is set for 7 p.m. and can be seen on ESPNU.
Ole Miss (25-23, 6-18 SEC) is coming off a 20-14 win on Saturday over Missouri. Catcher Calvin Harris made history as he hit four home runs, 10 RBIs, scored four times and compiled 16 total bases.
Missouri took the series by winning the first two games.
Harris became the first SEC player ever to hit four home runs in a conference game and just the third SEC player to do it in any game. He is also now just the fourth player in SEC history to have 16+ total bases in a single game.
His four home runs and 16 total bases also set new Ole Miss single-game records in both categories and his 10 RBI tied an Ole Miss single-game record that has stood since 1947. All marks were career-highs for Harris, and he also set a new career-high with four runs scored in the series finale.
This season, Harris is second on the team in home runs with 12. Kemp Alderman leads the Rebels with 19 home runs on the season.
As a team, Ole Miss has hit a total of 81 home runs on the year.
Auburn rolls into Oxford with an 27-19-1 overall record and a 11-13 mark in conference action. The Tigers are coming off a series win over No. 1 LSU last weekend by taking the backend of the series.
Auburn is led at the dish by Ike Irish with a .359 average and his teammate Bryson Ware is hitting .348 and leading the team with 19 home runs.
The pitching matchup for this weekend will showcase the arms of right-hander Chase Allups (Thursday), left-hander Tommy Vail (Friday) and RHP Christian Herberholtz (Saturday) for Auburn.
Coach Mike Bianco will set the matchup on the mound with southpaw Xavier Rivas (Thursday), RHP JT Quinn (Friday) and Saturday’s starter has not been announced.
These two teams met four times last season with Ole Miss winning three out of four of the matchups, including a 5-1 win in the opening game of the College World Series. Ole Miss has won seven of their last eight games against Auburn and has not lost a series in Oxford against the Tigers since 2012.
Game times for this series are Thursday (7 p.m. ESPNU), Friday (6:30 p.m. SEC Network+) and Saturday (2 p.m. SEC Network).
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