By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com
Ole Miss freshman southpaw hurler Doug Nikhazy was named to Perfect Game’s Freshman All-American First Team on Thursday.
The Windermere, Florida native opened the 2019 campaign working out of the bullpen but soon found a home in the weekend rotation around the start of conference play. In his first SEC start, Nikhazy took a no-hitter into the seventh inning at Missouri and ultimately turned in 7.2 innings of two-hit ball, combined with one of four shutouts by the Rebel staff this season.
Along with teammate Parker Caracci, Nikhazy garnered a shutout against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament in a 1-0 victory elimination game. Nikhazy worked eight complete innings without surrendering a run on three hits, four walks and two strikeouts.
In the Oxford Regional, he kept the hot bats of the Clemson Tigers silenced in another outstanding performance of 8-plus innings on the hill. He allowed just one run on four hits, while he triggered nine by strikeout and walked three.
Nikhazy was electric on the mound again in the Super Regionals against Arkansas in Baum-Walker stadium. He secured a lead in five frames on the bump and set a new freshman strikeout record to 86 on the season – an honor that was held previously by Jeff Calhoun (1977) and Drew Pomeranz (2008).
This season, Nikhazy was also selected to the Freshman All-SEC by the conference coaches and the Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball.
