OleMissSports.com's Rebelogs provide fans with a look inside the life of Ole Miss student-athletes.  A weekend starter, RHP Phillip Irwin is blogging throughout his junior season on the Rebel baseball team.

May 13, 2009

In a three-game series, Sunday is arguably the most important day of the weekend.  Some might disagree and say Friday because you want to start the weekend off right and you have a better chance to win the series if you only have to win one of the next two.  But Sunday is important because it decides many things.  If you win the first two games, Sunday could be sweep day.  If you only win one of the first two games, Sunday could decide if you win or lose the weekend.  And if you lose the first two games like the Rebels did against Mississippi State this past weekend, Sunday gives you a chance to salvage the series.  Although the Rebels were hoping for a sweep this past weekend, we must press on and focus on the task at hand ... Arkansas.

Sweeps are a rarity especially in the Southeastern Conference.  There are no teams in the SEC that can be pushed over easily.  That’s why if you win the first two games of a series, it is very important to take full advantage over such a critical opportunity.  You never know what game might when you the conference title.  In the words of Mike Bianco, “The SEC is a war made up of 30 battles.”  You must come ready to play for every battle or you will lose the war. 

Something that we did well in Auburn is no one ever even thought of saying the word sweep going into the weekend.  Everyone knows how hard it is to sweep on the road or how hard it is to sweep period.  The difference between Auburn weekend and Mississippi State weekend is we never stopped thinking about sweeping.  We lost our pitch by pitch, inning by inning, game by game mentality that we had all year.  With a missed chance at winning the SEC outright, the Rebels have to come ready to play in Fayetteville and hope some things go their way throughout the rest of the conference. 

April 21, 2009

Teamwork, according to dictionary.com, is a cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause.  This means no matter how big of a role one person might play on a team or in a single game; he or she is not capable of obtaining the ultimate prize without the rest of the team.  To be honest, it is very easy to get caught up in such matters because everyone wants to succeed.  Who wouldn’t want to be Jordan Henry with a batting average of .381 and an on base percentage of .506?  Whether you’re a starter, reliever, pinch hitter, or just someone on the bench waiting to take advantage of the few opportunities you are given; everyone has a job within the team and each one is just as significant as the other. 

Individually, this past weekend at Gainesville, Fla., might have been a bust for me, but my individual achievements are not important in this regard.  Ole Miss had a good weekend.  We carried the momentum from our big win against Mississippi State at the Governor’s Cup to Gainesville.  We walked into Gator country knowing they haven’t lost an SEC game at home this season, but that didn’t stop us from taking 2-3 from them.

Now the Rebels face two important upcoming midweek games and a big SEC weekend against the Georgia Bulldogs, a team that some poles consider the best in the country.  We couldn’t be more excited about it.  A large home stand with 8,000 plus on a Double Decker weekend sounds like good odds for the Rebels.  We wouldn’t want to face them at any other time in the year.

April 14, 2009

This week we will face up against Mississippi State in one of the most exciting games of the year -- the Governor’s Cup.  Started in 1980 by the Jackson, Miss., Mayor Dale Danks Jr., the Mayor’s Trophy or Governor’s Cup game has been one of the most anticipated match-ups of the college baseball season.  This is a battle between two SEC teams that have been rivals for as long as we can remember.  Averaging almost 4,900 in attendance each year, not only baseball fans, but Ole Miss fans come from all over just to have bragging rights over Mississippi State until the conference match-up comes around. 

For the last couple of years the Rebels have found themselves on the short end of the stick falling 5-6 in 2008 and 9-14 in 2007.  Even so, we feel like this is a big game for us.  For one, it will tie up the overall standings between Ole Miss and Mississippi State at 15 a piece in the battle for the Mayor’s Trophy/Governor’s Cup.  It will also give us a lot of momentum going to Gainesville, Fla., to face off against the Gators after a tough weekend against South Carolina at home.

The win over South Carolina on Sunday was nice, but we are eager to get back on the field and put the weekend behind us as we get the opportunity to play once more against our in-state rival and another SEC weekend.