Rebels sweep Missouri ahead of five game road trip

Of course the Rebels went out on graduation weekend and swept Missouri.

When all seemed set up to be the worst season in Mike Bianco’s tenure, the team gelled and handled the Tigers in all three games in Oxford. Now the Rebels (27-19, 10-14 SEC) have catapulted itself into 11th place in the SEC with eight games to play including an upcoming five game road swing.

While Ole Miss is tied with Alabama and South Carolina at 10-14 in the overall standings, the Rebels went a combined 1-5 against those squads earlier this season and lose the tiebreakers.

As best I can add up, here are the current standings for the SEC with the reminder the lowest ranked teams do not travel to Hoover for the year end tournament.

• 1. Tennessee Volunteers (20-4)
• 2. Arkansas Razorbacks (16-8)
• 3. Texas A&M (14-10)
• 4. LSU (14-10)
• 5. Auburn (13-11)
• 6. Georgia (13-11)
• 7. Vanderbilt (12-12)
• 8. Florida (11-13)
• 9. South Carolina (10-14)
• 10. Alabama (10-14)
• 11. Ole Miss (10-14)
• 12. Mississippi State (9-15)
• 13. Kentucky (9-15)
• 14. Missouri (7-17)

Ole Miss’ next task is a tough road game in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss at Pete “Trailer” Taylor Park. The Mustard Buzzards previously beat the Rebels 10-7 in a neutral site game in Pearl, Miss. where Ole Miss lost the lead in the eighth inning. USM is currently 36-12 with a 18-6 record at home, and they are positioned for a potential regional host in the NCAA tournament.

According to the latest RPI standings per the NCAA, the Rebels improved to No. 56 nationally with the sweep of Mizzou, and in theory, there’s an outside chance of an NCAA bid if the Rebels can keep winning. There’s a series against RPI No. 17 LSU and No. 24 Texas A&M ahead, so a 3-3 combination of those games may be enough to make things interesting plus would likely put the Rebels at 31-23 at season’s end.

Definitely a lot of work left to do but this damn program is doing its best to get my attention again, and while they don’t fully have it just yet, I can’t help but be a little curious as to how it will all play out.