Ole Miss moved to 5-0 to start the 2026 season with an 18-3 win Wednesday night against Jackson State.
Afterwards, the two Rebels responsible for smashing two home runs each spoke with reporters on the field to talk about the night’s game.
Here’s everything they said:
Tristian Bissetta
On his home runs…
It was good to go backside in the first one, off the lefty. That was nice, but the second one, you got to feel good when you can just barely get a wall scrape or whatever.
On if he’s ever hit two home runs in one inning before…
I don’t know about two in an inning. I’d have to go back to the younger days to see if that ever happened.
On the Ole Miss offense…
The guys just keep showing up, and we got some zeroes after a rough first in the field. So, shout out to the pitching staff there. We got a lot of good hitters that can hit, so it’s good to see them get in there. Even some of the guys who were off the bench had a big sixth inning there.
On what’s fueled his hot start…
I just have these guys on this team make it really easy to show up every day. I’m having a lot of fun and, you know, this is my last year of eligibility. So, it’s just all about competing for me every day and I don’t want to let any at-bats go. I want to give them all every at-bat just to compete with the team.
On what’s led to his hot start…
I’d say that [Assistant Coach Mike Clement], his superpower is giving guys the freedom to be themselves, and that’s what he’s allowed me to do. That’s worked out really good and we’ve worked over the time I’ve been here and hitting breaking balls better and just feeling comfortable out there and being myself has been a big thing.
Judd Utermark
On Tristan Bissetta…
He’s been swinging the hot stick. I’d love to see that keep up and if he beats me by about 10 home runs (this season), boy, we’re going to be a really good team.
On wearing the powder blue uniforms…
Yeah, there’s always a little controversy around the powders, but they’re a staple of Ole Miss. It just feels different when you put them on. The aura — or whatever you want to call it — is back, I guess. It showed up, at least for the offense and really the pitching staff too. I love them.
On how this offense feels different from last year’s…
I was glad to explain this earlier — it really feels like guys know their roles early in the season, and you don’t always get that. Sometimes it takes until SEC play to figure out, OK, what’s my role in this offense? Right now, it feels like guys already know. Whether that’s getting on base, waiting for your pitch, taking a walk, stealing second, stealing third — or if you’re a guy like Tristan Bissetta, who hits the ball really hard and out of the park. Everyone knows how to approach their at-bats, what they’re trying to do, and it’s worked for us so far.
On embracing his role as a power hitter…
Yeah, I really like my role. Sometimes I get frustrated when I don’t do my job, but when it does pan out, it’s a lot of fun.
On sticking at third base…
I love every position, honestly. I think it’s fun. I even got an inning at second base today.
On returning to second base briefly…
Yeah, good old times.
On positional versatility…
At the end of this, I don’t know where I’m going to end up. I might be at third, I might be in right field, or I might be DH — who knows? That’s part of the fun of baseball, being versatile and moving around.
On settling in defensively after an early error…
It frustrates us when we don’t do our job defensively, obviously. But our motto last year was “shower well,” and that’s what we had to do.
I think we did a good job of that. We’ve shown all offseason that we’re a really good defensive team. One game doesn’t define us, and I have a feeling that’s going to be one we laugh about later. We’re one of the top defensive teams in the SEC.
