Ole Miss baseball's season stays alive, earns NCAA Tournament at-large bid
Reports of Ole Miss baseball’s season coming to an end were greatly exaggerated.
It became official on Monday when Ole Miss received and at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament and will be playing baseball in June.
The full field of 64 was announced, and Ole Miss was included. The Rebels were one of the Last Four In.
After living life by a thread on the bubble most of the week, a string of stolen bids and upsets in conference tournaments on Saturday looked to have sealed the Rebels fate.
But the tournament selection committee chose to keep them alive for at least another weekend. After missing the NCAA Tournament in 2017, Ole Miss has made the field every season since, excluding 2020.
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Ole Miss is the No. 3 seed in the Coral Gables Regional.
No. 6 National Seed Miami (Fla.) is the host. The Rebels and Hurricanes are joined by No. 2 seed Arizona and No. 4 seed Canisius.
Needing to try and extend their stay in last week’s SEC Tournament, Ole Miss was knocked out by Vanderbilt in the single elimination portion. The Rebels were sent home and had to sit around for nearly a week awaiting their fate while other teams got the chance to better their resumes.
A poor regular season, relative to recent seasons by the Rebels, also put them behind the eight ball in trying to play their way into the NCAA Tournament.
Ole Miss finished below .500 in SEC play for the first time since 2017 (14-16).
They were 32-22 overall, the first time the Rebels failed to have a 40-win season in the same period.
Even so, Ole Miss found its way into the tournament and gets its shot at advancing to another Super Regional and the College World Series.
Before that is even a possibility the Rebels get a chance to exorcise their demons from last year’s Super Regional. They’ll play Arizona on Friday to begin the regional.
The Wildcats beat Ole Miss in Game 3 of the Tucson Super Regional last year to end the Rebels’ season.
Times and the full regional schedule will be announced at a later date.
