Three storylines that will define Ole Miss baseball's 2024 season for Mike Bianco

OXFORD ― All that stands between Ole Miss baseball and its season opener is a few days and roughly 4,000 miles.

The Rebels are set to begin their 2024 campaign with a four-game series against Hawaii, starting on Friday (10:35 p.m. CT, ESPN+).

Here are three storylines to watch out for as the Rebels prepare for first pitch.

Ole Miss baseball relies on growth from its young starting pitchers

The Rebels, for the first time in the transfer portal era, executed a roster overhaul, bringing in seven additions from Division I rosters last season.

None of them are expected to figure into coach Mike Bianco's four-man opening-weekend rotation.

Instead, Bianco is backing the likes of JT Quinn and Grayson Saunier to evolve into quality SEC starting pitchers. Both were asked to be key parts of the Rebels' staff last season ‒ perhaps before they were ready. Quinn pitched to a 6.83 ERA, with Saunier's ERA coming in at 6.85.

When asked by the Clarion Ledger in January why he'd given that sophomore duo such a considerable vote of confidence, Bianco first pointed toward their natural ability.

"They're very talented," Bianco said. "They're good. They have good stuff. But they're both different in the way they compete, their stuff is different.

"When you look at least year in parts, it's easy to look at wins and losses, it's easy to look at an ERA or WHIP and look at what doesn't work and what needs to be better. But it's our job to get them to be able to have success here. And I think we're excited with where they are from a stuff standpoint, but also from a development standpoint."

PITCHING STAFF: Mike Bianco reveals Ole Miss baseball starting rotation for opening series at Hawaii

Early pitching staff injuries to test Ole Miss baseball again

The environment that made last season so tough on Quinn and Saunier was created by a series of crippling injuries to the Rebels' pitching staff.

Already without Hunter Elliott after he underwent Tommy John surgery last season, the Rebels lost another weekend starter in Xavier Rivas for the season, Bianco confirmed last week. Promising freshman Taylor Rabe is also out for the year, Bianco said.

That, obviously, impacts the starting rotation, but it also has a chain reaction on the other parts of Ole Miss' pitching staff as the Rebels rearrange the deck chairs to address the loss.

The absence of pitching depth, among several other factors, caused Ole Miss' downfall last season. Are the Rebels better equipped to handle those injuries this time around?

"The depth on this staff is much more than it was last year," Bianco said. "And not just the depth, but the guys that have actually pitched in the heat of the battle."

How will Ole Miss baseball respond to low expectations?

Bianco told the Clarion Ledger last month that he thinks the Rebels have built a "really good" team for the 2024 season.

The outsiders don't necessarily see things the same way. The SEC's coaches picked the Rebels to finish sixth in the seven-team SEC West, ahead of only Mississippi State. Ole Miss has not appeared in any of the various top-25 polls available in the buildup to the season.

"The truth of the matter, in my opinion, is really that a lot of those polls, in baseball especially, go from what you did last year," Bianco said. "... I don't try to get caught up in that. It really doesn't mean a lot. The polls will change very quickly, like the starting lineup and the rotation and who's the first guy out of the bullpen."

This time last year, the Rebels were ranked fourth in the country by D1 Baseball as they prepared to defend their 2022 national championship. By the end of the campaign, they sat in the SEC's basement with a losing record overall for the first time in Bianco's tenure.

They only have to look to their neighbors for an example of a tough season becoming a trend. Mississippi State has failed to make a regional in both of the two campaigns since it won the 2021 national title.

Can the Rebels limit their championship hangover to a single-season one-off?

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: Ole Miss baseball: 3 storylines will define 2024 season for Mike Bianco