No. 15 Ole Miss (35-18, 14-13 SEC) will end the regular season in Tuscaloosa, Ala., against No. 18 Alabama (35-17, 16-11 SEC) from Thursday, May 14 to Saturday, May 16. The Rebels need two more SEC wins to host an NCAA regional. A series win would put Ole Miss above .500 in conference play.
Game one is tonight at 6 p.m. Game two is Friday, May 15 at 6 p.m., and game three will begin Saturday at 2 p.m. SEC Network+ will broadcast the games.
Third baseman Judd Utermark, fresh off his record-setting 49th career home run on Tuesday night, spoke about the importance of the series and what hosting a regional means for the Rebels.
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t (any pressure). Of course, we got to get a taste of hosting a regional last year, and there’s nothing better than bringing however many people here to Oxford and being able to celebrate us playing,” Utermark said. “We’re gonna go down there, and we’re gonna take care of business. We’re gonna go try to play one pitch at a time, not trying to play for a regional necessarily in game one, but trying to go out there and do everything that we can to win the game.”
The Rebels are No. 13 in rating performance index and No. 3 in strength of schedule. Their biggest series wins are over No. 10 Texas A&M and No. 19 Florida. The Tide are No. 6 in RPI and No. 4 in SOS, with series sweeps of Florida and No. 5 Auburn early in the season.
Both teams defeated Florida and had several other common opponents. The Rebels beat Kentucky and lost their series to No. 12 Arkansas, while the Wildcats and Hogs swept the Tide.
Both faced No. 6 Texas and lost two out of three in the series. Ole Miss won its series against the Volunteers, but Alabama did not.
The Tide have won six-straight SEC games. They swept Vanderbilt at home and South Carolina on the road. The Rebels are coming off one of their most important series wins of the season after taking two of three from the Aggies.
Ole Miss Baseball head coach Mike Bianco made a small tweak to the rotation for the series. Hunter Elliott will still pitch in game one on Thursday, but Taylor Rabe, usually the game three starter, will pitch in game two and Cade Townsend will slot in at game three. The adjustment keeps Townsend, who has more starts than Rabe, on his usual amount of rest.
Alabama will start Tyler Fay, Zane Adams and Myles Upchurch in the series. Fay has a 4.48 earned run average in 78 ⅓ innings pitched. He went seven innings against the Gamecocks last week and only allowed one run on two hits.
Adams pitched six innings last week and allowed five runs on six hits. The lefty has an ERA just above four on the season. Freshman Upchurch allowed just one run in six innings in his last start. He has a sub-four ERA in 57 ⅔ this season.
Reliever Matthew Heiberger leads the Tide with 21 appearances. He will certainly face the Rebels this weekend. Ashton Crowther has a 1.86 ERA in 29 innings. JT Blackwood also looks like a reliable arm out of the bullpen with 30 ⅓ innings and a 3.86 ERA.
Brady Neal paces the Alabama offense in on-base plus slugging (1.018) and batting average (.341). Justin Lebron leads the team with 13 homers. Overall, Alabama is No. 13 in the SEC in runs scored and No. 15 in average.
If the season ended today, Ole Miss would be the No. 9 seed (the highest seed to not get a bye) in the SEC Tournament, which begins Tuesday, May 19. Alabama would be the No. 4 seed, the last seed to get a double-bye.
No. 8 Arkansas is just ahead of them with a 15-12 SEC record. The Hogs are visiting the Wildcats to end SEC play.
For the last weekend of the regular season play, here are a few other series to watch closely: No. 13 Mississippi State at No. 10 Texas A&M, Tennessee at Oklahoma, No. 4 Georgia at No. 5 Auburn, No. 20 Coastal Carolina at Louisiana, Georgia Southern at No. 8 Southern Miss, No. 17 USC at No. 16 Oregon and No. 14 Kansas at BYU.
