numb with numbers

If you follow baseball closely, numbers always grab you. Southeastern Conference play starts this weekend for Ole Miss and Mississippi State – and just check out the numbers involved. Ole Miss is 18-1 heading into its three-game set at Arkansas, which is 13-5. (Please note, the Razorbacks were Baseball America’s preseason No. 3.) State is 18-2 with 16-1 LSU coming to Dudy Noble Field. The Bulldogs are hitting .324 as a team, tops among SEC schools. LSU is second at .321. And Ole Miss is third at .310. Arkansas pitchers have a 1.60 staff ERA, tops in the league. State’s at 1.84, second. Ole Miss is fifth at 2.21 and LSU sixth at 2.41. Just for good measure, the Tigers lead the league in fielding percentage (.980). In Friday’s openers, Ole Miss will start Bobby Wahl, 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA, against Arkansas freshman Trey Killian, 2-1, 0.86. (The Hogs’ real ace might be Ryne Stanek, 1-1, 3.71, who’ll go Sunday.) State will start lefty Jacob Lindgren, 2-0, 0.96, against LSU’s Aaron Nola, 2-0, 2.77. All those numbers are indicative of the talent that will be on those two fields this weekend. Quite a few future pros, to be sure. Of course, the only numbers that will matter when all the dust has settled by Sunday evening are the ones that appeared on the scoreboards. Those will grab us, too.