OXFORD – Somehow the SEC Baseball Tournament is nearly upon us. A year ago, that proved a very good thing for Ole Miss.
Ole Miss entered last season’s conference tournament ranked No. 17 nationally. The Rebels defeated No. 15 Florida, No. 5 Arkansas and No. 1 LSU before falling to No. 9 Vanderbilt in the tournament final. The Rebels, who had gone 16-14 in SEC play, earned the No. 10 national seed in the NCAA Tournament and hosted the program’s first regional since 2021.
Another strong finish could be key to Oxford hosting a regional in consecutive years.
The 2026 SEC Tournament begins May 19. This year’s Rebels (32-17, 12-12 SEC) are currently ranked No. 20 by D1 Baseball with a pair of SEC regular-season series remaining against No. 9 Texas A&M and No. 19 Alabama. The top 16-seeded teams as ranked by the NCAA committee will host regionals in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and the top-eight seeded teams are guaranteed to host super regionals as well should they advance.
Ole Miss is currently No. 13 in RPI (rating percentage index) among the 308 Division I programs. RPI takes into account strength of schedule and quality of wins, among other things, when calculating its ratings. The Rebels have the No. 4 strength of schedule nationally.
As of May 6, Ole Miss has the following NCAA Tournament projections:
D1 Baseball:
No. 2 seed (19th overall) in Hattiesburg Regional (Hosted by Southern Miss)
Baseball America:
No. 2 seed (17th overall) in Corvallis, Oregon Regional (Hosted by Oregon State)
PEAR Ratings:
No. 2 seed (20th overall) in Morgantown, West Virginia Regional (Hosted by West Virginia)
News and notes
• Senior third baseman Judd Utermark has 48 career home runs, tied with Kyle Gordon for the most in program history. He has 19 on the season and, after hitting 22 last year, has a chance to be the first Rebel to ever have multiple 20-home run seasons. The single-season record is 24, set by Tim Elko in 2022.
• Sophomore starting pitcher Cade Townsend currently holds a 2.42 ERA. Should that hold, it would be the lowest by a Rebels starter in a season (minimum 10 starts) since Christian Trent had a 2.05 ERA in 2014. Townsend is currently ranked as the No. 21 prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft, per MLB.com. He would be the first Rebel taken in the first round since Jacob Gonzalez went 15th overall in 2023.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 24 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
