OXFORD | Early success against quality teams helped Ole Miss to a top-five RPI this season, and the Rebels have scheduled a difficult opening four weeks prior to SEC play in 2017.

There are four weekends before league play begins, and Ole Miss has eight games against teams that made the regional finals of the NCAA Tournament, including five games against super regional teams.

Ole Miss has home weekends with East Carolina and UNC Wilmington before participating in the Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park. The Rebels will play single games against Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech. LSU and Texas A&M are also in the field.

Ole Miss closes its weekend non-league schedule with a three-game set against Furman.

The Rebels open the season at home against East Carolina, which won the Charlottesville Regional this past weekend and faces No. 6 national seed Texas Tech (44-17) in a super regional. The Pirates, coached by former Ole Miss assistant Cliff Godwin, are 37-21-1 and have made the NCAA Tournament in both seasons under Godwin.

Godwin, who has become a hot name for job openings, was Ole Miss' hitting coach from 2012-2014 and helped the Rebels to a third place finish in the College World Series in 2014.

UNC Wilmington (41-19) went 2-2 in the Columbia (S.C.) Regional, beating Duke and Rhode Island, respectively, before falling to the host Gamecocks in back-to-back games. The Rebels swept the Seahawks in a series in Oxford in 2012.

Ole Miss eliminated the Red Raiders and Horned Frogs in the 2014 College World Series. TCU and Ole Miss have also had two separate home-and-home series in recent seasons. The Horned Frogs visit No. 4 national seed Texas A&M in a super regional this weekend. Baylor was 24-29 in 2016. The Rebels opened the 1999 season at Baylor.

Furman, a member of the Southern Conference, was 29-30 this season, ending the year with a 2-2 showing in the conference tournament.

Ole Miss (43-19) went 0-2 in the Oxford Regional, falling in consecutive games to Utah and Boston College.