Ole Miss - Arizona State considered 'best opening day matchup' of the regionals

The NCAA Baseball Tournament gets underway on Friday with 32 games among the 16 host sites and none might have more attention or spotlight than the game between Ole Miss and Arizona State.

Host and No. 13 National Seed Nebraska gets the Lincoln Regional started at 3 p.m. CT at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park when it takes on 4 seed South Dakota State but the main event of not just Lincoln, but the entire opening day of regional play, might be when the Rebels and Sun Devils take the field at 8 p.m. CT.

“I like this first round game. The 2-3 game with Ole Miss and Arizona State,” D1 Baseball’s Mark Etheridge said on Tuesday’s Highway to Hoover Podcast. “That’s probably the best opening day matchup. I think it is.”

That’s not just Etheridge saying it, though he is, but there are other pieces of evidence to support the claim. ESPN is sending what is viewed as one of the ‘A Team’ announce crews for the tournament to Lincoln with Karl Ravech and Kyle Peterson assigned to the regional. The network also picked the game to be on TV, airing on ESPN2, while the host team is slotted to airing on ESPN+.

There is a feeling of whoever wins that opening round game will be in good position to emerge as the winner of the Lincoln Regional. Ethridge’s co-host Joe Healy went as far as picking Ole Miss to move on to next weekend’s Super Regionals.

The Rebels are going to have a rested pitching staff with Hunter Elliott, Cade Townsend and Taylor Rabe all on at least two weeks rest due to not pitching in Hoover last week. Biggest question mark for them to leave Lincoln with the chance to return to Nebraska in two weeks will be if the offense is packed in the bags on Wednesday.

“Often it’s solo homers and great starting pitching to get you to (Walker) Hooks. That plays,” Etheridge added. “If you get a few walks ahead of those homers and they’re not solos then Ole Miss will absolutely win this regional. I think that’s the key to them. Being able to turn solos into crooked numbers.”

With a lot of eyes on this weekend’s action in Lincoln there is the expectation of Haymarket Park to feature some of its largest crowds of the season. Nebraska hosted over 7,000 fans for its series against Southern California and Iowa this season but head coach Will Bolt is aiming for even bigger numbers with four teams, three from Power 4 conferences, bringing their respective fan bases with them.

“We have been in the top 10 in attendance every year, but to have actually 7,000 people in the stands for USC games and the Iowa games late in the season… I think will prepare (us) for the moment,” Bolt told local reporters on Tuesday.

“Now, can we fit 10,000? I think we’re going to try to find out. But they have played in front of 15,000 at (Charles) Schwab (Field). A lot of these upperclassmen have seen these type of crowds before.”