Ole Miss sophomore Thomas Dillard made great strides in his second year in Oxford.
On a Saturday afternoon in late April, the Greenwood native and former Pillow Academy player stepped to the plate at a critical juncture in a crucial rubber match against LSU. With two men on and his team down one run in the bottom of the seventh, Dillard smoothly blasted a pitch over the right field fence to propel the Rebels to victory.
But it hasn’t always been so effortless for the big fellow. Dillard showed up on campus as one the top 100 high school prospects in the country, a star among a 2016 recruiting class ranked No. 1 in the country. But he struggled to catch up to collegiate pitching as freshmen.
Dillard hit just .206 and led the team in strikeouts last season.
“It was pretty frustrating,” Dillard told The Oxford Eagle earlier this season. “I tried to stay with a positive mindset, but it just wears on you after a while. It wasn’t so much personally for me but just letting down the team and the fans. I underperformed (last) year and felt like I could’ve done a lot of stuff better.”
So he went to work in summer ball in the prestigious Cape Cod league and retooled his approach at the plate.
And, boy, did he come out swinging in 2018.
Dillard became a run-generating monster in the cleanup spot for the Rebels, who lost their regional to Tennessee Tech on Monday as a No. 4 national seed. He is currently second in the SEC in RBIs with 59 and his team-leading 13 home runs puts him in the top-10 in the SEC.
Dillard scored or batted in over a quarter of his team’s run this season while finishing fourth in batting average (.310) among those Rebels who were every-day starters.
He also slashed his strikeout rate from 30.5 percent to 17.5 percent.
Dillard had 15 doubles to rank third for the Rebels and had the best on-base percentage (.439) and slugging percentage (.563) while playing error-free ball in left field with 111 chances.
Dillard was also recognized as a member of the 2018 Southeastern Conference Community Service Team after performing a variety of community service activities.
The SEC names a community service team for each of its 21 league-sponsored sports, looking to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to his community through superior service efforts.
He was a leader in the Adopt-A-Basket program, working with Interfaith Compassion Ministries to provide a total of 50 Thanksgiving baskets from the Ole Miss Athletics Department to those in the Lafayette and Oxford communities.
He also went to local elementary schools to read books to students as part of the Reading with the Rebels program. Dillard joined in the nationwide Read Across America program, encouraging kids to read on a more consistent basis. Using his talents on the diamond, he volunteered at the Bats and Balls Clinic in coordination with the Junior Auxiliary of Oxford.
On campus, Dillard represents his fellow student-athletes on the Ole Miss Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), meeting throughout the year with athletic department administration. He joined other Ole Miss students to participate in RebelTHON, a fundraising event for the Children's Miracle Network Hospital. In the fall, Dillard and the Rebels helped Shriners Hospitals for Children throw a surprise birthday for a young Ole Miss fan at Swayze Field.
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
