The Southeastern Conference preseason projection has been known to turn upside down by late May. Especially in the talent-packed SEC West, surprises and disappointments are separated by small margins, so knowing which series are more gettable than others can be quite futile the majority of the time.

But even with those caveats, Ole Miss’ two-week goal was pretty clear, and a hot start was mandatory for the Rebels to chase a national seed and set up at Swayze Field for the postseason. There may be a lot of baseball left, but Ole Miss has dominated its early mission against two teams expected to be in the lower half of the division.

The Rebels (19-4) are 5-0 in the league for the first time since 1972 (SEC champs went 15-3) after sweeping the Friday doubleheader at Alabama, first with a 9-6 win thanks to an eight-run final inning and at night with a 2-0 shutout in Doug Nikhazy’s return from a chest injury.

Ole Miss took all three from Auburn last weekend and can win six straight to start league play for the first time since 1969 when it closes the series with the Tide at 1 p.m. on the SEC Network.

Piling up wins against the Alabama SEC teams is critical because of what’s next. The next three weeks and nine conference games are at Florida, at home against Arkansas and a trip to Mississippi State. The trio is currently second, third and fifth in the nation, respectively, per D1Baseball.com.

Ole Miss also has that Arlington sweep as a resume golden ticket, holding on to wins over No. 6 Texas Tech, No. 9 Texas and No. 13 TCU.

The Rebels dropped Alabama to 15-8 and 1-4 in the SEC. The Tide beat Arkansas to start league play and have dropped four straight since then.

Ole Miss did the important thing with two victories, but there were a lot of other good signs throughout the 18 innings. Here are a few of those that stuck out.

Gunnar Hoglund gave up three solo home runs for the only damage in six innings, and he struck out 10 with one walk on 95 pitches and 67 strikes. Hoglund’s fastball and slider were both sharp, and he struck out three straight hitters after the home run in the sixth put Alabama up two runs at the time.

Hoglund stranded leadoff runners in the first two innings and continues to excel with men on base. The nation’s strikeout leader showed excellent command in the zone and extending it on purpose with two strikes. He matures as an ace each week.

Fold down the page on that ninth inning of game one. We need to remember that one. Alabama led 3-1 with three outs to go in the series opener when seven straight Rebels reached base, and an eight-run inning flipped the game and then some for Ole Miss.

Whether it’s to host a regional or get a national seed or win the SEC West or whatever, there will be a couple single games that make a difference either way. That was one of them. The Rebels had pitched well enough but hadn’t hit much at all since Hayden Dunhurst’s solo home run in the second inning. Ole Miss wasted a couple of chances, namely the bases loaded in the third and two on in the sixth.

Alabama tried to get an extra inning out of reliever Landon Green, the inning started with Green hitting TJ McCants. Peyton Chatagnier followed with a home run to tie it, and three batters later, Tim Elko doubled in Jacob Gonzalez with the go-ahead run.

Speaking of McCants, his fifth-inning solo home run gave Ole Miss the lead in game two, and he singled and later scored with the eighth-inning insurance run. He’s raw but talented and learning quickly in the outfield, and the plate presence has improved with consistent reps. Ole Miss has enough in the order to not ask him to do too much, and that’s allowing the freshman to provide high-leverage quality at-bats and flip the lineup.

Nikhazy’s return to the rotation after missing two weeks with a chest injury went as planned. He blanked the Tide for five innings and 78 pitches with one hit, seven strikeouts and two walks. The fastball got as high as 94 MPH and he held velocity in the low 90s for the entire outing. He threw four pitches in the strike zone and didn’t show the discomfort in his chest that he did against Belmont three weeks ago.

Bianco knew he would have the junior on a precautionary pitch count, and he passed every test to be close or at full strength next week at Florida.

Peyton Chatagnier had four hits in the opener but showed stiffness in the hamstring as the day went on. Bianco said it’s not injured, but it tightens up on the second baseman the longer he is on it. Garrett Wood replaced him in the final inning of the doubleheader.

Bianco said he didn’t know if rest would expedite the recovery process or if it would just take time, but it’s manageable and was worsened by the back-to-back games.

Drew McDaniel filled in for Nikhazy exceptionally well those two weeks, and Bianco picked the perfect time to use the sophomore right-hander on Friday. He threw three shutout middle-relief innings after Nikhazy, getting all nine outs while it was a one-run game.

McDaniel stranded a runner each inning and is becoming a button for Bianco to push whenever he’s needed before Taylor Broadway’s turn at the end of games.

Broadway closed both games, picking up his fifth and sixth saves of the season. Alabama hit a three-run home run to cut the deficit to three in the first game, and Broadway struck out two straight hitters on 12 pitches to end it. Fifteen pitches and a stranded runner joined the three outs in the nightcap. Broadway got a line out to end it after two strikeouts. On the year, he has 22 strikeouts in 14.2 innings.

Ole Miss used only five pitchers in both games combined and should have Max Cioffi back from his meniscus injury. Cioffi traveled with the team and Bianco said he’s active and available for his first action since the opening weekend of the season.