Bracket Watch: Ole Miss baseball is inching its way back towards the NCAA Tournament picture
We are two months into the 2024 college baseball season and the Southeastern Conference schedule hit its midway point this past weekend with Ole Miss taking the series against Mississippi State.
For the Rebels (20-16), winning Saturday and Sunday was more than just getting a nine-year monkey off their back. Taking two of three from the Bulldogs in a weekend series for the first time since 2015 also moved Ole Miss to 5-10 in SEC play with 15 more games to go.
Ole Miss is currently in fifth place in the SEC Western Division and tied with Missouri for 12th in the overall standings. The Rebels are two games clear of defending national champion LSU (3-12 in SEC play) and three games ahead of Auburn (2-13).
Both Tigers teams would miss Hoover and Ole Miss would get in after missing the SEC Tournament a year ago. But there are still five more weekends of conference play to go, starting at No. 24 Georgia (7-8) on Friday.
“It’s huge for our energy, especially beating State like that,” said outfielder Ethan Lege on Sunday. “I love it. Feels great. Energy’s back and on to next week.”
With the bounce-back weekend Ole Miss is seeing itself move back into the NCAA Tournament picture.
This week’s Field of 64 projections had the Rebels still on the outside looking in as there is still plenty of work to be done, but closer to the doorstep of getting in the mix.
D1Baseball’s updated projections released on Wednesday has the Rebels as the first team among the First Four Out and sitting right on the bubble. Baseball America also has them on the bubble but as the fourth team among the First Four Out.
Despite the seven straight SEC losses, the extra-innings win on Saturday followed by the run-rule rout of Mississippi State on Sunday moved them right back into potential postseason play.
Part of it is due to Ole Miss’ resume with a RPI of 27 heading into the series with Georgia.
This weekend in Athens provides a major RPI and tournament resume boost with the Bulldogs sitting at No. 10 in the RPI. After Georgia the remaining four SEC opponents are all inside the top 50 of the RPI.
The Rebels will host No. 18 Alabama (RPI No. 22) with a short turnaround with a Thursday-Saturday series next weekend followed by a trip to Auburn (No. 35). They will then host No. 1 Texas A&M (No. 2) before traveling to LSU (No. 49) to close out the regular season.
