Ole Miss baseball is testing a new way to build a winner in 2024. Will it work?
OXFORD — Ole Miss baseball transfer Andrew Fischer grew accustomed to picking out where his dad was beyond the outfield wall during his lone season at Duke. It wasn't difficult to find him from the batter's box amid typically sparse crowds, Fischer said.
Before the 2024 season begins, Fischer might have to purchase a neon vest for his pops. In a year that saw the Rebels finish last in the SEC, they still reported an average attendance of more than 10,000 fans.
"I got fan mail the other day," Fischer said. "I mean, fans don't even know who I am yet, and coach is bringing papers on top of papers into the locker room."
It illustrates a level of enthusiasm for college baseball that doesn't exist in many other places. Fischer, who made it clear that big-time environments and big-time games energize him, indicated that he wanted to play at a school where baseball mattered.
The extent to which a fan base is engaged has never been more important. Beyond the environment Ole Miss fans create at Swayze Field, Rebels coach Mike Bianco said communities that value baseball are more likely to support it via NIL.
"A lot of NIL opportunities are driven by the importance of your program at that institution, the fan base compared to the fan bases of other programs," Bianco told The Clarion Ledger last month. "When I say that, you would think that there's going to be more opportunities for NIL at programs that draw more, that have more interest in their program."
It presents the Rebels with an opportunity to build their roster differently than programs that don't have the same luxury.
Fischer's addition is one example. The infielder hit 11 home runs with an OPS of .999 as a true freshman for a Duke program that went to a super regional last season. Fischer liked how the ACC's top baseball environments felt when he played in them. He knows Ole Miss will provide that.
"The hair stands up on my arms thinking about it," he said. "You talk about a school like Ole Miss, you're gonna play in front of that crowd every single game, whether it's a midweek or a three-game series against whoever in the SEC."
Transfers have contributed to Ole Miss before, but not like this. Bianco has seven hitters penciled on his lineup card for the season opener at Hawaii on Feb. 16. Four of them came from the portal.
Fischer is expected to start at third base, filling the left side of the infield along with Arizona State transfer Luke Hill — a .314 hitter at Arizona State as a freshman last season. Jackson Ross, a first-team all-conference slugger from FAU, will man first base. Treyson Hughes, who compiled a .351 batting average in two seasons at Mercer, will start in right field, Bianco said.
It's not a transfer piece here or a transfer piece there. It's a transfer core, at least as it relates to the lineup. Ole Miss' pitching portal additions were more understated. There are none in the four-man rotation Bianco plans to roll out against Hawaii.
The roster is unlike any Bianco has ever built as he looks to bounce back from his worst season in more than two decades leading the program. And with novelty comes questions.
Did he strike the right balance? Did the Rebels nail their talent evaluations? Did they allocate their resources correctly?
We're about to find out.
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: How Ole Miss baseball embraced transfer portal in gearing up for 2024
