2005-04-13_thedailym..

PAGE 11
April 13, 2005
Mound of aches for hurlers Rebel Netters rise,
Ole Miss junior right-hander
Anthony Cupps is quick to point
out that the Ole Miss pitching
staff has struggled recently.
But Cupps is also quick to
add that he hasnʼt lost his confidence.
“We just have to start pitching better,” Cupps said after the
Rebelsʼ 12-6 loss to Alabama
Sunday. “We havenʼt been doing
a good job.
“I think weʼre the most talented pitching staff by far in the
SEC, and weʼre just not pitching like it right now. Everybody
is just not doing their job out
there.”
The Rebel pitching staff
hopes a trip to Louisiana will
revive them this week. The No.
20 (SW) Rebels (22-10) will
take on Southeastern Louisiana
(15-19) tonight at 6:30 p.m. at
Alumni Field in Hammond, La.
Junior right-hander Chris
Moffett (0-0, 1.23 ERA) will
start for Ole Miss against junior right-hander Chad Catalano
(1-4, 7.86 ERA). Moffett and
Catalano were teammates last
season at Meridian Community
College.
The game can be heard locally on WTNM-FM 105.5 FM.
Ole Miss will then remain in
the Bayou State and take on No.
12 (SW) LSU in a three-game
series in Baton Rouge over the
weekend.
The
Rebels
cross the state
line amidst a
skid in which
they have lost
five of their last
six games. Itʼs a skid
that has seen the
team ERA rise
dramatically,
from 3.01 on
April 1 to
3.83 after
S u n d a y ʼs
l o s s .
Thatʼs a
gain
of
nearly a
run over
t h e
course
o f
them seventh in the conference.
While their ERA climbed slightly to 3.01 over the Rebelsʼ first
seven SEC games, so did the
teamʼs league rank, which stood
at fourth on April 1.
Thatʼs when things started
going sour. Ole Miss allowed
seven runs in consecutive losses
to Vanderbilt and then 10 runs in
a loss to Southern Miss.
In last weekendʼs threegame series against
Alabama, Ole Miss
allowed run totals of
five, 10 and 12 runs.
Thatʼs an average of
8.5 runs allowed per
game over the last six
games. It was enough to
induce Bianco to hold an extended meeting with the entire pitching staff immediately after Sundayʼs
loss.
One problem
has been starting
pitching. The two
losses to Vanderbilt saw Stephen
Head allow a careerhigh seven runs (but only
four earned) and Anthony Cupps yield six runs
and 10 hits in just 3.2 innings.
That prompted Bianco to shift
his weekend rotation for the first
time all season—replacing Head
(a proven closer) with
Matt Maloney (who
had dominated
in
the
man and Maloney will
still start Friday and
Saturday respectively.
Another problem the
Rebels have had has
been holding leads.
Ole Miss has lost
leads in five of its
last six games.
That includes
one one-run
lead,
one
two-run
See HURLERS
move up to No. 3
Staff & Wire
page 13
File Photos The Daily Mississippian
Chris Kieffer
Senior Staff Reporter
The Ole Miss menʼs tennis
team, coming off two huge wins
last weekend, moved up a spot
to No. 3 in this weekʼs ITA National Rankings released Tuesday. The Rebels clinched their
fourth consecutive SEC Western Division Championship
with wins over South Carolina
and Florida last weekend.
Ole Miss (19-2, 9-1) will
head to Starkville, Miss., Saturday to face arch-rival Mississippi State at 1 p.m. at the
A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. With
a win, the Rebels will secure at
least a share of the overall SEC
Championship by virtue of last
Sundayʼs 5-2 win over Florida.
An Ole Miss win and a Gator
loss would give the Rebels the
outright championship for the
File Photo The Daily Mississippian
second year in a row.
Jakob
Klaeson
and
his fellow netters
Baylor remained atop the
poll, followed by Virginia. Af- moved up to No. 3 in the nation.
ter dropping a 4-3 decision to
Kentucky at home last week,
Tech and Georgia round out the top
Illinois fell two spots to No. 4. Duke, 10. The SEC boasts eight teams in
Florida, UCLA, Pepperdine, Texas the Top 25.
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PRESENT:
closi n g
role all
season).
However, the results
werenʼt much
better.
Against
A l a -
Sugar
Powder Puf f
Bowl
April 16
Kick-off @10 am
@the Intramural
Fields
Benefitting
The Diabetes Foundation
of Mississippi, INc.
SPORTS SCOREBOARD
s i x
games.
“ W e
h a v e n ʼt
pitched well
the last few
games,”
Ole Miss
head coach
Mike Bianco said
Sunday.
“Itʼs
disappointing.
Weʼve kind of
fallen into a little
funk. When you look
around, we pitched well
until a week or so ago. We
just havenʼt been able to do it on
the mound.”
Ole Miss entered Southeastern Conference play March 17
with a 2.89 ERA, which ranked
bama,
Rebel
s t a r t ers Mark
Holliman,
Maloney
and Cupps
combined to
allow 16 runs
(11 earned) on
20 hits and eight
walks over 14.2 innings. The trio combined for a 6.97
ERA.
It was enough
to prompt Bianco to shift his
rotation once
again, moving
Eric
Fowler into
t h e
Sunday spot
this weekend in place
o f
Cupps.
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