No. 20 Ole Miss Baseball welcomes No. 9 Texas A&M to Swayze Field this weekend for another crucial SEC series. The Rebels are coming off a series loss at Arkansas and need to go 4-2 to secure a home regional. The Aggies will look to rebound after a series loss to Auburn at home.
This weekend’s rotation is set: Hunter Elliott on Friday, Cade Townsend on Saturday and Taylor Rabe on Sunday. Townsend and Rabe were solid against the Razorbacks last weekend. Both starters only allowed two earned runs.
Elliott has struggled in his last two outings and has not looked like his normal self for most of the season. His earned run average was 2.94 in 2025 and has risen to 5.49 in 2026.
Against Georgia two weeks ago, Elliott pitched 3 ⅔ innings, allowed nine hits and gave up eight earned runs. Last week against Arkansas, he gave up six earned runs in three innings. Still, head coach Mike Bianco is showing faith in his ace to get the game one win.
Ole Miss did not play a midweek game, so they are coming off four days of no games. While the team will be well-rested, they may have to shake off some rust on Friday. A break in the usual pattern of games can be an issue for timeliness and rhythm.
The Aggies defeated Prairie View A&M on Tuesday night for their final midweek game of the season.
With a home run, Ole Miss third baseman Judd Utermark will set the all-time Ole Miss home run record. He tied Kyle Gordon for the most all-time last Sunday.
Aside from Elliott’s performance on Friday night, another question mark on the weekend is right fielder Tristan Bissetta. The lefty slugger is 2-for-31 in his last seven games. Ole Miss needs Bissetta to get going again. They are 2-5 since his slump began.
His last hit was an infield single in game three against Georgia and his last homer was nearly three weeks ago against Tennessee.
A&M’s rotation consists of Aiden Sims, Ethan Darden, Weston Moss and Shane Sdao. Sdao has been the Friday night starter all year, but he has not performed well in SEC play and will now serve as an option for Sunday’s game. The lefty has a 6.55 ERA this season.
In Sdao’s stead, Ethan Darden will start in game one. Darden has a 2.88 ERA in 25 innings. Friday will be his first start with the Aggies. He started in nine games with Clemson a year ago.
Like Ole Miss with Townsend, the Aggie sophomore Saturday guy, Sims, is their most reliable starter. He is 8-1 with a 3.60 ERA in 65 innings and paces the team in strikeouts at 68 but also has a team-leading 18 walks.
The Rebels could see Moss or Sdao on Sunday. Moss pitched into the seventh inning against No. 8 Auburn last week. He allowed just one hit and one earned run while striking out six.
Relievers Gavin Lyons, Clayton Freshcorn, Juan Vargas and Grant Cunningham are the go-to guys out of the bullpen. All three have at least 25 innings pitched in more than 14 appearances.
Freshcorn has a sub-2 ERA, while Lyons (4.02), Vargas (3.60) and Grant (6.75) are much higher.
A&M has a potent offense. They are No. 3 in runs scored, batting average and home runs in the SEC. Caden Sorrell leads the team in homers (21), on base plus slugging (1.205) and slugging .768.
Six Aggies have at least a 1.000 OPS and five have them have over 100 at-bats. The A&M lineup will be tough to get through.
Ole Miss needs back-to-back series wins to ensure a top-16 national seed. That task will start on Friday, May 8 at 6:30. Game two is Saturday at 4 p.m. and game three is Sunday at 5 p.m. SEC Network+ will broadcast the games.
