Rebels remain in host conversation but need strong finish

The Rebels dropped the weekend series at Oklahoma and sit 33-15 overall and 13-11 in the SEC with two weeks left in the regular season. Ole Miss is No. 17 in the RPI and currently on pace for 29 quadrant one games out of the 55-game schedule.

Ole Miss visits Mississippi State – RPI 33, 10-14 in the SEC – this weekend and then hosts Auburn – RPI 4, 13-11 in the SEC – to close the regular season. The Rebels likely need four out of six SEC games, and a win over RPI 234 UT Martin next midweek, to secure postseason baseball in Oxford.

“We know it’s a rivalry this weekend and a great environment,” Ole Miss outfielder Isaac Humphrey said about the weekend at MSU. “It’s another opportunity, and we need to play good baseball and get some wins. That’s what it is about.”

The Rebels have hosted with 16 SEC wins in the past, and that would be a possibility, though it’s likely just on the outside part of the host bubble. There are some unknowns related to history considering the SEC is in its first year of 16 teams. Ten of the top 17 teams, including the entire top five, are from the SEC.

State, meanwhile, is 4-0 since firing Chris Lemonis last week. The Bulldogs run-ruled Memphis and then swept Kentucky in Oxford. Mississippi State can get into the at-large bid race with likely four wins of the six games left. The Bulldogs visit Missouri next week. The Tigers are 0-24 in the league.

Auburn and Ole Miss are two of the four teams tied for seventh in the SEC at 13-11. The Tigers have the nation’s fourth-best RPI. Oklahoma and Alabama are the others at 13-11. That quartet is one game back of Tennessee and Vanderbilt and two games ahead of Florida.

The top-eight teams start play on Wednesday at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama, while teams 9-16 in the standings begin on Tuesday. All games are single elimination.

Sixteen teams are selected to host regionals during the NCAA Tournament. Nonconference games against SEC opponents are on the NCAA selection committee's team sheet under conference games. The Rebels have a neutral site loss to Texas and a neutral site win over Mississippi State.

Here are the remaining opponents for every SEC team along with league records.

Texas (19-5): Florida, at Oklahoma

Arkansas (17-7): at LSU, Tennessee

Georgia (15-9): at Alabama, Texas A&M

LSU (15-9): Arkansas, at South Carolina

Tennessee (14-10): Vanderbilt, at Arkansas

Vanderbilt (14-10): at Tennessee, Kentucky

Alabama (13-11): Georgia, at Florida

Oklahoma (13-11): at Kentucky, Texas

Auburn (13-11): South Carolina, at Ole Miss

Ole Miss (13-11): at MSU, Auburn

Florida (11-13): at Texas, Alabama

Miss. State (10-14): Ole Miss, at Missouri

Texas A&M (10-14): Missouri, at Georgia

Kentucky (10-14): Oklahoma, at Vanderbilt

South Carolina (5-19): at Auburn, LSU

Missouri (0-24): at Texas A&M, MSU