Our heralded baseball coverage takes another swing at preseason coverage by taking a glance at the Ole Miss baseball schedule for 2010.
The Rebels have 56 regular season games beginning with a three game series against Louisiana-Monroe on Friday. Ole Miss will face challenges both on the road and at home before beginning the arduous 30-game SEC play.
A relatively favorable home schedule coupled with some winnable road trips should put the Rebels in position to have a chance at competing for the SEC West title.
Ole Miss starts its season with eight non-conference home games against ULM, Oakland(maybe the Raiders, we'll see), Arkansas State and Memphis. While all of these should be wins, there always seems to be a game here or there that drops during non-conference that is seemingly inexplicable. It could happen here.
A non-conference trip down to NOLA against Tulane is one of the more palatable trips in recent memory. There was the long journey to UCLA that a few brave souls got to experience. Tulane usually puts a good product on the field and should be a fantastic weekend trip for any Rebel.
Other non-conference foes include Arkansas-city universities(Pine Bluff, Little Rock) and other Tennessee universities not normally seen in football season(Austin Peay, UT-Martin).
The main notable non-conference opponent coming to Oxford is Louisville coached by former assistant coach Dan McDonnell. This team is the class of the Big East for baseball, which is sort of like being the best looking girl in a sorority at Mississippi State. Sure it's great for you, but in the grand scheme of things, you're just above average.
Louisville will bring a very solid team into Oxford, and with the weather warming up, it will be a fine time for crawfish and beer in the outfield. This could be one of those super regional type atmosphere weekends, especially depending on the outcome of our basketball team.
The conference schedule breaks down as follows. We grouped the away and home games, so it'll be a little easier to follow. Also included are the 2009 regular season and SEC records for each team.
AWAY
- Kentucky: 28-26, 12-18
- Georgia: 38-23, 15-13
- South Carolina: 40-23, 17-13
- Mississippi State: 25-29, 9-20
- Alabama: 37-21, 18-11
HOME
- Florida: 42-22, 19-11
- Tennessee: 26-29, 11-19
- LSU: 56-17, 20-10
- Arkansas: 34-22, 14-15
- Auburn: 31-25, 11-19
Simple elimination shows that Vandy is the team Ole Miss will not play this season. The Rebels are rewarded there by picking up a series with Tennessee at home. Three road series(Georgia, MSU and Kentucky) should be manageable for success. LSU and Arky traveling to Oxford could be absolutely massive weekends considering their usual baseball success.
LSU is by far the series I am most anticipating as the season approaches. This will also be Double Decker weekend, so there will be approximately 49,293,392 people in town for all of the events. There will be mass quantities of booze consumed and the grills in the outfield may not stop all weekend.
Don't forget. Red Cup Rebellion tent will be in the Right Field this weekend, so stop by and sit a spell. Enjoy some grub or beverages if there are any to be had.
On deck: Brian Walker's Elbow and I will predict the outcome of the 2010 season