1/12/2009 4:00:00 PM

USA BaseBlog - Counting Down the Top 10 Games of 2009 - No. 2 USA vs. Ole Miss

The USA BaseBlog is a web site feature found only on the baseball page at www.usajaguars.com. David Kaye, USA baseball's athletic media relations contact, provides an all-access look into Jag baseball. This is the ninth entry in a series counting down the 10 best games of the 2009 baseball season.

No. 2 - USA vs. Ole Miss, Feb. 22 (Stanky Field)

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South Alabama's meeting with Ole Miss at the 24th-annual Coca-Cola Classic comes in as the second-best game on the Jags' 2009 schedule. USA will get its first chance to beat a nationally-ranked team when the Jags take on the Rebels in the last of seven games at Stanky Field in the season's first weekend.

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper ranked the Rebels as the nation's 11th-best team in its preseason poll, making them the highest-ranked team on USA's 2009 slate. Aside from the ranking, the Jags will also be fighting to break a string of seven consecutive losses to Ole Miss, a streak that started when the Jags were swept at Stanky Field in 2004. The 2004 series was the first time USA was swept in a three-game series at Stanky Field since 1994.

Ole Miss is coming off a 39-26 record and a second place finish at the NCAA Coral Gables, Fla. Regional in 2008. The Rebels return six of nine position starters and 11 of 15 pitchers from a season ago. Among the top returning players is junior outfielder Jordan Henry. Though he's small in stature (6'0, 164), Henry has put up big numbers in his first two seasons in Oxford, Miss.

As a freshman in 2007, Henry made 64 starts and hit .376 with 60 runs scored on his way to being named SEC Freshman of the Year. He fell victim to the proverbial sophomore slump in 2008, when his numbers dropped to .292 with 44 runs in 63 games. However, his stock has shot back up because of a solid summer playing with the Bourne Braves in the prestigious, wooden-bat Cape Cod League. That performance was noticed by The College Baseball Blog, which ranked Henry 23rd in its list of the 50 best college baseball players for the 2009 season.

The Rebels also return outfielder Logan Power, who hit .329 with nine homers and 51 RBI as a junior in 2008. However, Ole Miss will have to recover from the loss of three of its top four hitters. Cody Overbeck (.356), Fuller Smith (.332) and Michael Guerrero (.294) all moved on to the professional ranks after impressive seasons a year ago.

Ole Miss' pitching staff returns one of the top closers in the nation in senior Scott Bittle. After notching eight saves and posting a 7-1 record with a 1.78 ERA in 27 appearances, he earned numerous postseason accolades in 2008. Entering his senior season, Bittle has been named a preseason All-American, in addition to being named to the watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award.

The Rebels' pitching staff also returns four pitchers who made at least six starts last season. Drew Pomeranz (4-3, 4.16), Nathan Baker (3-6, 4.89), Brett Bukvich (2-1, 5.11) and Phillip Irwin (2-1, 5.40) all return to give Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco plenty of options for his weekend rotation.

Three of those four pitchers saw action against the Jags when USA traveled to Oxford for a two-game, midweek series in April of last season. Baker started for the Rebels in the first game and allowed one earned run in 5.2 innings. Ole Miss won 6-5 in 10 innings after erasing a 5-4 USA lead in the bottom of the ninth. Sean Stuyverson delivered the game-winning hit with a walk-off solo homer of Jag reliever Blake Bryan.

Irwin helped Ole Miss carry the momentum from the win over to the next day by allowing two runs in 4.0 innings as the Rebels' starting pitcher. Bukvich came on in relief to start the fifth inning and pitched 2.0 shutout innings to earn the win in the 10-2 Ole Miss victory.

The last time the Rebels traveled to Mobile was for a midweek game in 2007. Ole Miss won 8-6 in front of 1,619 fans, the third-largest crowd of the year at Stanky Field. USA also faced the Rebels in 2006, when the Jags dropped a 8-6 decision in the NCAA Oxford Regional.

This game could go a long way toward building confidence before the Jags hit the road for eight straight games. USA won't play at Stanky Field again until the Jags host Memphis in the week leading up to conference play. Hopefully, the Jags will win at least two of the first three games in the opening weekend, but if they win just one, this game will also be a chance for head coach Steve Kittrell to notch the 1,000th win of his coaching career.

Notes: USA is 13-17 in the all-time series with Ole Miss ... The Jags are 9-6 at Stanky Field, 4-9 in Oxford and 0-2 at neutral sites ... While Ole Miss has held the advantage in recent years, the series started with the Jags winning the first seven meetings over the 1971 and 1972 seasons ... Though the Jags swept a three-game series at Stanky Field earlier in the year, Ole Miss rebounded to defeat USA twice at the NCAA Gastonia, N.C. Regional in 1972 ... In addition to winning seven straight, Ole Miss has also won 11 of the last 12 over USA ... two of those wins came in extra innings, and eight games have been decided by two of fewer runs during that stretch ... The last time USA beat Ole Miss at Stanky Field was a 14-7 win in the opener of a three-game series in 2000 ... Three of the last 18 meetings have featured walk-off hits in extra innings.

TOP 10 GAMES OF 2009 COUNTDOWN

No.	Game	Date (Site)	Points
1.
2.	USA vs. Ole Miss	Feb. 20, 2009 (Stanky Field)	90
3.	USA vs. Auburn	March 31, 2009 (Stanky Field)	87
4.	USA at Louisiana-Lafayette	April 17, 2009 (Moore Field)	86
5.	USA vs. UC Irvine	March 8, 2009 (Baylor Ballpark)	82
6.	USA at Vanderbilt	March 17, 2009 (Hawkins Field)	80
7.	Southern Miss at USA	May 12, 2009 (Stanky Field)	72
8.	Mississippi State at USA	March 24, 2009 (Stanky Field)	70
9.	USA at Baylor	March 6, 2009 (Baylor Ballpark)	58
10.	Troy at USA	May 16, 2009 (Stanky Field)	57

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