Alabama
Mike Bianco laments lack of Ole Miss baseball consistency after another series loss to Alabama
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OXFORD — Mike Bianco has seen this Ole Miss baseball team play well. That’s what fuels his hope. It’s also the root of his frustration.
The capability is plain to see. The Rebels have secured memorable wins over Mississippi State, Georgia and even on Friday night against Alabama in the last three weeks. But Ole Miss is not playing to those capabilities often enough to meet the expectations this program has developed over 24 seasons with Bianco at the helm.
After dropping two out of three to the Crimson Tide at Swayze Field this weekend, the Rebels’ path to an NCAA Regional looks more like a lightly used foot trail conquered by prickly overgrowth.
“You go back to the ’22 team ‒ and not because we’re 7-14 or anything like that ‒ but one of the things we’ve always said about that team is they showed up every day,” Bianco said. “They were very consistent in the way they approach practice, the way they approach the game, the way they approach everything. This team’s too inconsistent.”
The Rebels (23-20, 7-14 SEC) have an unhappy tendency to get embarrassed when they lose. Eight of their 14 SEC defeats have come by at least seven runs. And those margins are often inflated by Ole Miss’ inability to get out of its own way.
In Saturday’s decisive rubber match against Alabama (28-16, 9-12), Ole Miss got a strong start from Mason Nichols, who didn’t have his best stuff after returning from an injury. He pitched four innings of one-run ball anyway.
Once he left the game, the Rebels collapsed. Their bullpen faltered, sure, but they twice missed routine fly balls in the outfield to extend innings, unable to cope with the elements on a blustery, sunny afternoon.
Offensively, they didn’t have an answer for Alabama freshman Zane Adams, who entered the game with a 4.54 ERA. Adams pitched into the eighth inning having allowed one run before Jackson Ross finally chased him with a late home run in a game that was already decided.
“We’ve got the wind blowing out 20 miles an hour and we can’t pull the ball in the air the whole day,” Bianco said.
SIMMONS: Ole Miss football dual-sport athlete Austin Simmons leaves baseball game with injury
Bianco was asked postgame why he feels this team has failed to achieve consistency, and whether there are certain traits his more dependable teams from the path have featured that this group lacks.
He said he didn’t believe it was fair to discuss culture, leadership and chemistry during the season.
“When you’re this close, you can’t really analyze that kind of stuff,” Bianco said. “…Sometimes you don’t win because you’re not good enough. You know, that’s a fact. And that’s probably more so than not. But there’s times when you don’t win because you don’t show up enough, and that was kind of the message today.”
It would be disingenuous to pretend as though these Rebels don’t have serious roster construction problems. They don’t have a true Friday night starter ‒ they haven’t won a series opener since their first SEC set of the season against South Carolina. Injuries and ineffectiveness have gradually depleted their bullpen into a unit that lacks reliability. Ole Miss’ preseason plan at catcher hasn’t worked out and its lineup isn’t the murderer’s row some hoped it might be.
Still, undeniably, Ole Miss has the talent to catch the baseball reliably. It has the talent to make basic plays on the infield. It has the talent to handle a freshman lefthander better than it did against Alabama on Saturday in a 10-3 loss.
That’s why Bianco can feel hopeful ‒ and like an opportunity is passing him and his team by.
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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Alabama
Top-30 overall recruit Jaxon Richardson commits to Alabama
Jaxon Richardson, the No. 27 overall recruit in the 2026 class per the Rivals Industry Ranking, has committed to Alabama.
The 6-foot-6 four-star small forward out of Southeastern Prep (FL) ultimately chose the Crimson Tide over USC, Creighton, and Ole Miss. He also received offers from Miami, Cincinnati, Michigan, Florida, Villanova, and others.
Richardson, a McDonald’s All-American, becomes the Crimson Tide’s third commitment of the 2026 cycle. He joins four-star shooting guard Qayden Samuels (No. 28 NATL) and four-star small forward Tarris Bouie (No. 54 NATL).
He’s the son of NBA veteran and two-time NBA Dunk Contest champion Jason Richardson. His older brother, Jase, played for Michigan State last season before being selected 25th overall in the 2025 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic.
More on Richardson
Rivals’ National Recruiting Analyst Jamie Shaw says Richardson is one of the most explosive players in the 2026 class:
Jaxon Richardson is able to combine fluid athleticism with explosive burst in a way no other player in this class can. He uses his athleticism to his advantage on the floor. He fills the outside channels with a purpose in transition, he is aggressive in the passing lanes, and he plays as a vertical floor spacer in the dunker spots and lob plays. Last summer, playing with the Florida Rebels on Nike’s EYBL Circuit, the 6-foot-6 wing averaged 12.8 points on 54.0 percent shooting and 10.5 attempts per game. Last high school season, he averaged 12.9 points on 61.0 percent shooting on 8.9 attempts per game. He is a highly efficient player, as 84.4 percent of his makes last high school season were at the rim.
Alabama
Alabama Baseball Ties Stolen Base Record In Win Over Hornets
Alabama baseball cruised to a win over Alabama State on Wednesday night, beating the Hornets 13-4 to complete the season sweep. The Crimson Tide tied a program record with nine stolen bases in one of the stranger contests that will be played this season.
The tone was set for a tumultuous night on the basepaths in the opening minutes of the game. Leadoff batter Bryce Fowler, who exited Tuesday’s game after getting beaned in the head, was walked, and promptly took second base. He advanced to third on a wild pitch in Justin Lebron’s at-bat, paving the way for Lebron to steal second when he was ultimately walked as well.
The successful baserunning instantly paid off, as Brady Neal drove both in with a double to left-center field before John Lemm walked two at-bats later. Both runners stole their respective bases on the same pitch in Jason Torres’ plate appearance, meaning that four of the first five batters of the game stole a base.
Alabama has been exceptional on the basepaths, sitting at 30-for-30 on the season. Lebron, who swiped two bags on Wednesday, leads the team with 12. The junior had an up-and-down night, hitting his eighth home run of the season, but also committing an error at shortstop for the fourth consecutive game.
“Get those things out of there now, baby. The dude is unbelievable,” an unconcerned Rob Vaughn said on Tuesday of Lebron’s errors. “We’re going to look up at the end of the year, and that guy is going to have five or six errors, which one he’s got right now, and we’ll be like, ‘Man, that guy is the best of all time to do it.’”
Wednesday’s game was a very prototypical midweek contest with no shortage of quirks and oddities throughout its nearly four-hour runtime. Fifteen Alabama batters were walked, falling just one shy of the program record, and the hit by pitch record was tied as seven batters were plunked.
The game was never competitive from an on-field standpoint. After barely escaping with a 2-1 win in the first matchup with the Hornets two weeks ago, this was a far more accurate representation of what these games typically look like, as Alabama now leads the all-time series 15-0.
Freshman Joe Chiarodo made his first career start, allowing two hits and one walk over two scoreless innings. He was named the winning pitcher. Luke Smyers, Connor Lehman, Anthony Pesci and Tate Robertson were the other pitchers to take the mound. Lehman allowed a three-run blast in the sixth inning, and those were the only runs until the incredibly-named Skywalker Mann drove in a run off Robertson in the ninth.
Perhaps the most shocking figure from the game was that Alabama had 19 runners left on base. The Crimson Tide left the bases loaded in four different innings. As stated, this was just a bizarre baseball game across the board. With the midweeks out of the way, the Crimson Tide gets to prepare for its final weekend tune-up before SEC play as North Florida heads into Tuscaloosa on Friday.
Alabama
New Alabama law to set screen time limits for kids in day care, pre-K and kindergarten
The Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act was signed on Wednesday, March 4, by Governor Kay Ivey to introduce limits on children’s screen time access in Alabama.
The Act is one of Ivey’s 2026 legislative priorities.
“Video screen access in classrooms can boost learning skills among our young children, but too much screen exposure can also be detrimental, harming critical social and cognitive development,” Ivey said. “The Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act ensures our youngest students are provided a healthy balance of screen time and traditional learning in order to protect social and emotional development.”
Under the Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act, the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education will be required to work with the Department of Human Resources and the State Department of Education to develop guidelines for screen-based media.
Guidelines will be implemented in early childhood education programs like day care centers, day care homes, night care facilities, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and group day care homes. The Act was sponsored by Representative Jeana Ross and Senator Donnie Chesteen.
“House Bill 78 establishes clear, research-based expectations for how technology is used in early childhood settings,” said Ross. “The goal is not to eliminate technology, but to ensure its use is developmentally appropriate and never replaces the hands-on learning and human interaction young children need most. By setting thoughtful guardrails and aligning classroom practices with the best available research on early brain development, this legislation supports educators, protects the quality of early learning and reinforces our commitment to giving Alabama’s youngest students the strongest possible start.”
A training program will also be created by the Department of Early Childhood Education to create a baseline for the appropriate use of child screentime for teachers and staff members supervising children.
“The Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act represents another important step in ensuring Alabama’s youngest children grow and learn in environments that prioritize human interaction, exploration and healthy development,” said Chesteen. “Building on the progress made with last year’s FOCUS Act, this legislation continues our commitment to protecting the most formative years of childhood. I am grateful to Governor Kay Ivey and my colleagues in the Legislature for recognizing the importance of this issue and working together to support Alabama families.”
The Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act will become effective on January 1, 2027.
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