{"id":13728,"date":"2014-05-26T22:16:44","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T03:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=13728"},"modified":"2014-05-26T22:43:12","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T03:43:12","slug":"ncaa-regionals-return-to-the-house-bianco-built","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ncaa-regionals-return-to-the-house-bianco-built\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Regionals Return to the House Bianco Built"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13731\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13731\" style=\"width: 607px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/MikeBianco.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13731 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/MikeBianco.jpg?resize=607%2C406\" alt=\"Mike Bianco\" width=\"607\" height=\"406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/MikeBianco.jpg?w=607&amp;ssl=1 607w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/MikeBianco.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 607px) 100vw, 607px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13731\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mississippi&#8217;s head coach Mike Bianco argues with umpire David Brown after a call during the seventh inning in a game against Vanderbilt at the Southeastern Conference NCAA college baseball tournament on Thursday, May 22, 2014, in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo\/Butch Dill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">That favorite pastime has returned to <strong>Oxford, Mississippi<\/strong>. Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Ole Miss<\/strong> is set to host an NCAA Regional this weekend and is poised to take the program deep into the <strong>NCAA Baseball Tournament<\/strong> and <strong>College World Series<\/strong>. However, the Rebels were blessed with some stiff competition in its guests this weekend, including two conference champions and a top 15 ranked program.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The <strong>Oxford Regiona<\/strong>l is paired against the <\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Lafayette<\/span> <span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Regional<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0(<strong>Lafayette,\u00a0<\/strong><b>Louisiana<\/b>, that is) where <strong>Mississippi State<\/strong> will be participating this weekend. This sets up the potential for an Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State Super Regional in Oxford the following weekend. <em>Heads will explode if this scenario plays out.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The Rebels, who were picked to finish sixth in the SEC West back in February enter the weekend with a 41-18 overall record, an SEC West Championship and a National rank of 14. But, there is still work to do. Ole Miss has been here before. In fact, the Diamond Rebels have been less than a few outs away from reaching <strong>Omaha<\/strong> twice during the <strong>Mike Bianco<\/strong> era.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Will this be the year? We break down the path to the College World Series.<\/h2>\n<h2>&#8211; Oxford Regional &#8211;<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<h2>Ole Miss (No. 12)<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h2>Washington (No. 14)<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h2>Georgia Tech<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h2>Jacksonville State<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Game 1 \u2013 Friday, May 30\u00a0 @ 3:00 p.m.<br \/>\nWashington (39-15-1) vs. Georgia Tech (36-25)<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Washington Huskies<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The Huskies are currently ranked No. 14 and finished second in the Pac-12. Ole Miss has faced Washington just once on the diamond previously, losing 7-2 in a 2004 NCAA Regional at Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Offense<\/strong> \u2013 Washington hit its way to a .281 average as a team in 2014. <strong>Brian Wolfe<\/strong>, the team&#8217;s top hitter, averaged .361 at the plate which included 10 doubles, 35 RBIs and five home runs. <strong>Trevor Mitsui<\/strong> also slapped five balls over the fence while batting .335.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Defense<\/strong> \u2013 The pitching revolves around the right arm of <strong>Tyler Davis<\/strong> who posted team best 10-2 mark this season. Davis&#8217; ERA is just 1.75 in just under 100 innings of work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13734\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13734\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/AustonBousfield.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13734 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/AustonBousfield.jpg?resize=620%2C400\" alt=\"Auston Bousfield\" width=\"620\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/AustonBousfield.jpg?w=620&amp;ssl=1 620w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/AustonBousfield.jpg?resize=300%2C193&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13734\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ole Miss Junior outfielder Austin Bousfield led the SEC with 87 hits this year and\u00a0won Mississippi&#8217;s highest honor for the top baseball player in the state this year, the 2014 Ferriss Trophy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The last time Ole Miss and Georgia Tech played each other in baseball, the Yellow Jackets were members of the SEC. That was in 1959 and Ole Miss defeated Georgia Tech in a three game series to win the conference. In 2014, the Yellow Jackets are coming off an ACC Tournament Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Offense<\/strong> \u2013 The squad brings a team batting average of .279 to Oxford and a offensive weapon in Junior outfielder <strong>Daniel Spingola<\/strong> who posted a .328 avearge with eight triples and 36 RBIs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Defense<\/strong> \u2013 With a team ERA of 3.26, the Yellow Jackets will look to slow down the offensive\u00a0 production of opponents with the arm of <strong>Dusty Isaacs<\/strong> who gave up an earned run average of just 1.81 this season despite going 7-5.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Game 2 \u2013 Friday, May 30 @ 7:00 p.m.<br \/>\nOle Miss (41-18) vs. Jacksonville State (35-25)<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Ole Miss Rebels<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13733\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13733\" style=\"width: 534px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ChrisEllise.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13733 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ChrisEllise.jpg?resize=534%2C712\" alt=\"Chris Ellis\" width=\"534\" height=\"712\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ChrisEllise.jpg?w=534&amp;ssl=1 534w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ChrisEllise.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13733\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ole Miss Pitcher Chris Ellis\u00a0hosted a 9-1 record on the mound and an ERA of just over 2.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">This regional will be the sixth time the Rebels have hosted in the program&#8217;s history and the 12<sup>th<\/sup> time Ole Miss has advanced to the NCAA Tournament during the 14 years of Bianco Ball. In 2014, Ole Miss led the SEC in batting average (.303) and a 2.76 team ERA by the pitching staff was good enough for fifth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Offense<\/strong> \u2013 The SEC&#8217;s best offense (.303 team average) is led by Junior outfielder <strong>Austin Bousfield<\/strong>, who led the SEC with 87 hits while Senior catcher <strong>Will Allen<\/strong> is second in the SEC in batting average (.352). Junior first baseman Sikes Orvis&#8217; 12 home runs was the second most in the SEC.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Defense<\/strong> \u2013 Weekend starters <strong>Chris Ellis<\/strong> and <strong>Christian Trent<\/strong> combined for a 17-1 record during the season making for one of the best Friday-Saturday pitching combos in the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Jacksonville State Gamecocks<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The Gamecocks are coming of an Ohio Valley Coference Tournament Championship where they won six consecutive elimination games. Jacksonville State is 0-3 all-time versus Ole Miss.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Offense<\/strong> \u2013 Jacksonville State boasts a team batting average of .294 and are led by Senior outfielder <strong>Griff Gordon<\/strong>. Gordon posted a .376 batting average, seven home runs and 49 RBIs this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Defense<\/strong> \u2013 On the mound, the Gamecocks have relied heavily on right-hander <strong>Zacahry Fowler<\/strong> who posted a 7-7 record. Relief pitcher <strong>Travis Stout<\/strong> has 15 saves this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Saturday, May 31, 2014<\/h3>\n<h3>Game 3 \u2013 Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser \u2013 1:00 p.m.<br \/>\nGame 4 \u2013 Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner \u2013 5:00 p.m.<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Sunday, June 1, 2014<\/h3>\n<h3>Game 5 \u2013 Game 4 Loser vs. Game 3 Winner \u2013 1:00 p.m.<br \/>\nGame 6 \u2013 Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner \u2013 5:00 p.m.<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Monday, June 2, 2014<\/h3>\n<h3>Game 7 \u2013 Game 6 Winner vs. game 6 Loser (If Necessary) \u2013 7:00 p.m.<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMG_9561.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-13740 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMG_9561.png?resize=533%2C800\" alt=\"IMG_9561\" width=\"533\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMG_9561.png?w=533&amp;ssl=1 533w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/IMG_9561.png?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That favorite pastime has returned to Oxford, Mississippi. Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. Ole Miss is set to host an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":13739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3461,88,3455,160,3464,3463,3450,3459,3460,3458,3466,3465,3452,87,5,1644,3449,7067,2013,3453,4,3451,700,3468,3456,3457,3454,3462,3467],"class_list":["post-13728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-athletics","tag-austin-bousfield","tag-baseball","tag-brian-wolfe","tag-carver-rayburn","tag-chris-ellis","tag-christian-trent","tag-college-world-series","tag-daniel-spingola","tag-dusty-isaacs","tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","tag-griff-gordon","tag-jacksonville-state-gamecocks","tag-lafayette-regional","tag-mike-bianco","tag-mississippi","tag-mississippi-state","tag-ncaa-baseball-tournament","tag-ole-miss","tag-ole-miss-rebels","tag-omaha","tag-oxford","tag-oxford-regional","tag-rebels","tag-travis-stout","tag-trevor-mitsui","tag-tyler-davis","tag-washington-huskies","tag-will-allen","tag-zacahry-fowler"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014-OleMissWest.jpg?fit=851%2C314&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}