Road to Hoover: The path is clear for Ole Miss to return to the SEC Tournament and beyond
There are three Southeastern Conference games remaining in the regular season with all seven series starting on Thursday. Ole Miss is part of a four-team race to clinch a spot in next week’s SEC Tournament at Hoover, Alabama.
Nine teams have clinched their spot in the conference tournament and Auburn is the lone team that has been eliminated from postseason contention.
This leaves Ole Miss, Florida, LSU and Missouri in a race for the final three spot in the 12-team bracket. One of these teams will join Auburn in having their season end come Saturday.
The Rebels (27-24) are tied with the Gators (26-25) at 11-16 in SEC play and the current tiebreaker being used by the league off is how each team fared against Kentucky. As of now the 10 seed is Florida, who went 1-2 against the current No. 1 Seed Wildcats. Ole Miss is the current 11 Seed due to being swept.
As things stands right now the Rebels would play No. 6 Seed Mississippi State in Tuesday’s first round as the first game of the tournament at 9:30 a.m. CT.
Behind them is LSU (33-20) as the 12 Seed at 10-17 and the defending national champion is currently in the final spot for Hoover. Missouri (22-30) is two games behind LSU and three games behind the Rebels and Gators.
Starting Thursday Ole Miss and LSU begin their series with a lot riding on these final three games for both teams. Each is trying to get to Hoover but also trying to bolster its NCAA Tournament resume.
For the Rebels on win over the Tigers and a Missouri loss at Mississippi State will clinch them a spot in Hoover. But the bigger picture and the ability to play beyond next week requires at least two wins for Ole Miss.
“The big message is we control our own destiny,” Ole Miss outfielder Ethan Groff said on Sunday. “We got a big week coming up and we got to grind some games and fight as hard as we can.
“If we can go into LSU and win some games I like the position we’re going to be in.”
The metrics are all very good to strong for Ole Miss and the only thing missing from the resume is a better win-loss record.
The last two weekends have helped the Rebels with a pair of SEC series victories, going 4-2 against Auburn and a Top 5 Texas A&M. A missed opportunity at a sweep of the Tigers is looming large as it would be the 12th SEC win and Ole Miss realistically would only need one win in Baton Rouge to have a stronger NCAA Tournament resume.
Ole Miss has gone 8-7 in SEC play over its last four series, dating back to taking two of three from Mississippi State last month. Salvaging wins against Georgia and Alabama to avoid being swept is also what has kept a postseason chance alive.
Simplicity is the path laid out for the Rebels this week. They are No. 24 in the RPI entering Tuesday’s game at Southern Mississippi and have a strength of schedule ranking of No. 2, behind Florida.
Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball said it a plainly as it could be of Ole Miss and the final week of the season.
“I think Ole Miss is in the field with a series win over LSU — on the road – this weekend. I think it’s that simple for the Rebels,” Rogers said.
Two wins secures Hoover and gives the Rebels a fifth SEC series win to put in their back pocket. From there any wins next week in the SEC Tournament only strengthens what would be a hard resume to ignore come selection day on May 27.
