Bats or Arms: Arizona State and Ole Miss will settle baseball’s oldest debate

PHOENIX – Batter vs pitcher. It’s the core on which baseball was built, and the key matchup in Arizona State’s opening-round game of the Lincoln Regional against Ole Miss on Friday in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

The Rebels’ highly regarded pitching staff looks to slow down the Sun Devils potent lineup, and can turn to any of its three starters to do so. 

Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco is keen to use that to his advantage.

“We’ll decide (the starting pitcher) probably later tonight or tomorrow,” he told reporters Tuesday at a pre-regional press conference shared on the Rebels’ YouTube channel, noting that he and pitching coach Joel Mangrum will keep the decision under wraps until the last minute.

The expectation is that Bianco will employ his usual rotation and open with ace Hunter Elliott at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park in Lincoln, Nebraska. Elliott, the only remaining player from Ole Miss’ 2022 national championship team, knows what it takes to win in the postseason.

“You have to lay it all out there,” he told reporters. “This time of year it’s so much more about the team and not really much of it’s about you. The only thing that matters is winning at the end of the day.”

Elliott has no shortage of postseason experience, having started four games during the Rebels’ title run, including the Super Regional-clinching and College World Series-clinching games. Last season, he won a start and fired a scoreless inning of relief in the Oxford Regional.

“He’s seen all sides of it,” Bianco said of the lefty. “Not just through that run, but from the injury standpoint, from a side where we weren’t good and he’s grown a lot.”

If not Elliott, the Rebels can turn to a right-handed option and throw Golden Spikes Award semifinalist Cade Townsend, the No. 21 MLB Draft prospect this year. He relishes the opportunity to silence opposing crowds.

“I love pitching away,” he told reporters. “I like everyone hating you and you just gotta compete, and that’s what this postseason is. So we’re going to just deal with it and go on from there.”

The Rebels’ final starter, Taylor Rabe, is equally capable of shutting down a lineup. He’s the No. 119 MLB Draft prospect, but teammates who have faced him think he should be ranked higher.

“He doesn’t get enough recognition nationally as the other two, but I think he should,” first baseman Will Furniss told reporters. “I think he’s probably one of the best starters in the country, and he’s kind of proven that the last couple weeks.”

Any of the three options – Elliott, Townsend or Rabe – will prove difficult for Sun Devils batters, but ASU feels confident in its offensive abilities regardless of who is on the mound. 

“Early challenge there, our first game is one that we’re going to look forward to, and have to play our best baseball,” ASU coach Willie Bloomquist said. “If we play our game, we can play with anybody. We know that.”

ASU ranks sixth nationally in batting average (.320), eighth in hits (626) and 10th in home runs (108) this season. The Sun Devils are brimming with confidence.

“No matter where they put us, I think our offense stacks up good,” said outfielder Landon Hairston, who broke the ASU all-time single-season home run record with his 28th on May 21 against Cincinnati in the Big 12 Tournament. “We got all the talent in the world to show for it, so we’re looking forward to it.”

If Ole Miss’ front-end arm quality weren’t enough, the whole staff will be well rested after the Rebels were upset by Missouri in the first round of the SEC Tournament. That includes All-SEC First Team reliever Walker Hooks, who finished third in the conference with seven saves.

“The body feels really good,” Elliott said. “I think Joel (Mangrum) did a really good job getting us enough work, but making sure this rest was really important and that we feel better coming out of it.”

Ole Miss hopes to turn its loss into motivation for this year’s postseason push.

“You hope that it’s going to have the reverse effect where you kind of get your legs back underneath you,” Bianco said. “Obviously we would’ve liked to still be playing, but I think the guys, the mindset, once we got back was a good one, and we got some good work done.”

The Lincoln Regional can be considered this year’s “group of death”, with Nebraska (No. 20), Ole Miss (No. 18) and Arizona State (No. 22) all ranked in the Top 25. The Rebels find no difference between this and facing SEC teams all season long.

“Obviously, we have a lot of confidence going in there after playing an entire season in the best conference in America,” third baseman Judd Utermark told reporters. “No matter if we’re playing in a backyard stadium, or whether we’re playing in Omaha, we’re going to come with a lot of juice and a lot of energy to play. It’s postseason, so obviously this is my last ride and I can’t wait to get it started.”

Not only has SEC competition prepared Ole Miss for top-tier opponents, it has taught the team the importance of every game, and that one misstep could be the end.

“That’s life in the SEC. You’ve heard me say it all year long: If you don’t play well, you lose,” Bianco said. “Well, guess what? That’s the way it is in a regional, if you don’t play well, your season’s over.”

“We’ve done it before, obviously, but it takes a special group, a special team but the most important thing is, you have to play well.”

Arizona State went 1-4 against SEC teams this season, splitting a series with Oklahoma before getting swept in the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series at Globe Life Field. Despite the early-season struggle, ASU’s confidence remains high.

“Obviously, we didn’t play our best at Globe Life, but we still think our best playing days are ahead of us,” Hairston said. “We’re super excited to show the nation what we got.”

Despite the Sun Devils’ record against SEC opponents, Bianco knows ASU isn’t a team to overlook. 

“Certainly a big ace on the mound, one of the best offensive players in the country and so a really good offense, 108 home runs,” Bianco told reporters. “We play a lot of people who have more home runs than us, so (it’s) a team that certainly is going to be a big challenge for us.”

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