In baseball as it is in real life, the only consistency is that things will change.
The ballpark will change. The teams will change. The grass type will change. Even rules will change, but what changes the most may be batting lineups.
Ole Miss is a great example of this. Through 60 games this season, the Rebels have used 51 different batting lineups. Of those different lineups, 44 of them were used just once and two were used three different times.
Sometimes the changes are small, like switching spots with Judd Utermark and Tristan Bissetta. Both are always in the lineup, if healthy, but the order changes.
Other changes are more significant. Utermark was moved to the leadoff spot a couple times this season and the Rebels had a rotation of different younger bats, like Canon Goldin, Collin Reuter, Daniel Pacella, Topher Jones and Tate Sirmans.
The reason for why the lineup was changed changes, too. Lineups can change due to a different handed pitcher or if a ballpark is more advantageous to a certain type of hitter.
Lineup Breakdowns
As a fun exercise, let’s take a look at some fun facts about Ole Miss and it’s 51 different batting lineups.
To start, here’s a big picture breakdown of the Rebels’ batting lineups.
- Games played: 60
- Different batting lineups: 51
- Lineups used once: 44
- Lineups used more than once: 7
- Most starts by one lineup: 3
- Most wins by one lineup: 3
The lineup that won the most games were the ones used to sweep LSU in April. Ole Miss used the same lineup the whole weekend and went 3-0 with 8.67 runs per game, a combined .344 batting average, .985 OPS and five home runs.
That batting order looked like this:
- Dom Decker
- Tristan Bissetta
- Judd Utermark
- Will Furniss
- Hayden Federico
- Canon Goldin
- Brayden Randle
- Austin Fawley
- Owen Paino
However, there was one batting lineup that had a higher runs per game average. The lineup of Decker, Utermark, Furniss, Bissetta, Reuter, Pacella, Fawley, Randle and Federico was used twice against Arkansas State and Missouri State. The Rebels won both of those games and averaged nine runs per game.
If you’re looking for the lineup that produced the most offense in a single game, look towards the one used against Murray State on April 21. That group scored 19 runs on 14 hits and five home runs while posting a 1.496 OPS.
Here’s what that lineup looked like:
- Dom Decker
- Tristan Bissetta
- Judd Utermark
- Will Furniss
- Hayden Federico
- Topher Jones
- Luke Romine
- Austin Fawley
- Owen Paino
Takeaways
This was more of a “just for fun” exercise and not intended to try and predict what lineup we’ll see Friday when the Rebels face Auburn in a NCAA Super Regional. It won’t be surprising to see a 52nd different lineup from Ole Miss.
Each opponent should be looked at uniquely and determine from that the answer to questions like, should Utermark hit in front of Bissetta? Or should Furniss be sandwiched in between the two?
So if you’re keeping track at home, go ahead and leave a little space in the notebook. With the way this season has gone, there’s a good chance Ole Miss hasn’t used its most important lineup yet.
