If Ole Miss baseball traveled to Hawaii looking for a statement to distance itself from a terrible 2023 season, it didn't get one.

The Rebels split a four-game set with the Rainbow Warriors, who finished fifth in the Big West last season.

Ole Miss began the four-game set with a 5-4 win in 13 innings and won the first half of a Saturday doubleheader 5-2. Hawaii roared back, though, with a pair of emphatic wins to salvage a split. It closed Saturday's twin bill with a 9-1 win, then blew out the Rebels 13-4 on Sunday.

Some familiar issues appeared in those losses that the Rebels will have to fix if they hope to be competitive in the SEC after finishing in last place last season. But there were some good signs, too.

Here are our takeaways from the opening series.

Some good, some bad for the Ole Miss baseball pitching staff

The Rebels couldn't have asked for a better bullpen outcome than what they got in the first two games, when their relievers combined to toss 12.2 innings of one-run ball.

A notable bright spot in that sample came from true freshman Wes Mendes, who struck out four and didn't allow a hit in three innings as he closed out a win in the second game. Transfer Connor Spencer looked electric on Friday night, too.

But, as is typical on opening weekend, Ole Miss didn't get depth from any of its starters, which placed a heavy burden on its bullpen. The depth options the Rebels rolled out in the final two games were, broadly speaking, a cause for concern. The relievers surrendered 12 runs in 8.1 innings in the back half of the series.

There were some good performances within that bad outcome. Freshman Austin Simmons, also a quarterback for the football team, tossed a scoreless inning and struck out two. And Josh Mallitz, fully healthy for the first time since the 2022 season, pitched a pair of scoreless innings.

Still, it wasn't an encouraging showing from the Rebels' pitching depth, which coach Mike Bianco hoped would improve this season.

The starting pitching was a mixed bag. JT Quinn's stuff looked great on Friday before a fourth-inning meltdown spoiled his stat line. Fellow sophomore Grayson Saunier also failed to complete four innings, walking three and allowing four hits and four earned runs. Riley Maddox went two innings and gave up three earned runs Sunday.

The best start of the series belonged to junior college addition Gunnar Dennis, who completed four innings and allowed two runs in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader.

FULL UPDATES: Ole Miss baseball score updates vs. Hawaii: Live updates as Rebels begin season

Ole Miss lineup struggles as transfers get off to slow start

The Ole Miss lineup, considered to be this team's strength heading into the season, managed just 15 runs in the four games.

With Bianco trying four very different lineup combinations as he figures out his best starting nine, the Rebels struggled mightily with situational hitting, and didn't get a home run parade to bail themselves out. Bo Gatlin, Ethan Groff and Andrew Fischer each went deep in the first two games of the series, but Ole Miss didn't leave the yard in either of the final two.

Fischer's homer offered a rare bright spot for a quartet of highly touted transfer additions to the Ole Miss lineup.

He, Jackson Ross, Treyson Hughes and Luke Hill combined to go 5-for-51.

Ole Miss defense a cause for concern

As bad as 2023 was for the Rebels, they played decent defense, committing 38 errors in 54 games. The .979 fielding percentage ranked 20th nationally.

But the defense was ugly on opening weekend.

The Rebels made eight errors, including a disastrous defensive effort in Sunday's final game, when they committed six, and every member of their starting infield was charged with at least one.

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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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: What we learned from Ole Miss baseball's series split with Hawaii