Ole Miss Baseball vs LSU Preview, can the Rebels upset No. 1?

The Ole Miss Baseball team will take on the top-ranked LSU Tigers in a three-game series starting tonight at home in Swayze Field.

It’s been a roller coaster of a season for the Ole Miss baseball squad that’s been filled with many ups and downs, and lately, mostly downs.

The Rebel started the season looking ready to defend their National Championship from a year ago after a hot 14-2 start through the first part of the season. They didn’t lose until the fifth game of the year and outscored their opponents 46 runs to just nine through the first four games.

Their offense stayed hot through that 16-game stretch before start of the rocky downslide that’s afflicted them as of late. After the 14-2 start the Rebels dropped a game against Jacksonville State and followed that up with an 0-3 series showing against Vandy.

That kicked off an abysmal 7-14 run, including going 3-12 against their SEC competition. The Rebels are not performing close to championship level, so what are their odds against the number-one-ranked team in the country?

Currently, the Tigers are ranked in the top spot where they’ve sat for the majority of the season and are 29-7 on the year including 9-5 in conference play. While they’ve been mostly dominant, they are coming off of a loss in which they were a heavy favorite against UL-Lafayette, losing by a score of 8-5.

The Tigers have been strong this season and have been ranked in the top spot for 10 weeks straight now, but if Ole Miss can take this series at least 2-1, this could be the spark that the Rebels need to get back on track in time for the final stretch of the season, playing mostly SEC opponents in their last part of the schedule. This series may be the end or a new beginning for the 2023 Ole Miss baseball team.

The first game of the three-game series starts tonight at 6:30 p.m. CST and will be streaming live on SEC Network+.