The defending national champion Ole Miss baseball team played a 12-inning exhibition game against UAB on Sunday.

Long-time Rebel hitting coach Mike Clement wasn’t all that thrilled with the results.

To be fair, his only responsibility is the Ole Miss hitters, and Clement said the Rebels “pitched it really well.” Sophomore ace and projected Friday starter Hunter Elliott was one of four pitchers with at least three strikeouts.

Offensively, however, they only scored five runs. The teams tied, 3-3, in the first segment. Ole Miss won, 2-0, in the second.

“I’m sure some of our players would make the excuse of, ‘It’s hard to get in an offensive flow. I get one at-bat and then I sit for two hours and get another at-bat,’” Clement said, adding the practice was structured for top-down lineup changes after every three innings.

“All of that is true. We just didn’t swing it great. It was kind of weak contact. Just kind of inconsistent. It wasn’t terrible, but I wasn’t super fired up about it.”

Tulane transfer Ethan Groff was a bright spot.

Ole Miss pulled Groff from the NCAA Transfer Portal in July following a sophomore season in which he hit .404 with nine home runs. He led the AAC with 15 doubles and 35 RBI and finished with a team-high 17 multi-hit games.

Groff reached base in 38 of 41 games.

“He has been really good in all intrasquads,” Clement said. “He’s a dude. You’re going to see him in our lineup a lot. He’s a really, really good piece. He really knows how to take an at-bat (and) he’s a really good outfielder.

“That was a really good pick-up.”

Clement said Groff is a top-of-the-order candidate.

Groff — who was one of just four Rebels with exit velocities of at least 100 mph on Sunday — is currently competing with veteran TJ McCants to start in center field. Whichever player finishes second in the competition is expected to slide over to left.

“He’s going to make an immediate impact for us,” Clement said. “Really well-rounded player. He’s going to steal some bases. He’s going to come in and get after it.

“If I was making out the lineup today, he would lead off. Just grinds out at-bats, not a ton of swing-and-miss to him (and) has some juice. It’s going to be tough to get through him. He’s going to be a good one.”

Clement also discussed the upcoming week-long championship celebration, injuries, where the Rebels stand with less than two weeks left in fall ball and much, much more in this edition of Talk of Champions.

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