The Ole Miss Rebels are coming off an excellent week. Beating Mississippi State in the Governor's Cup, essentially ending Lemonis' tenure. They followed it up, taking two of three from the top 10 Vanderbilt, returning to the win column after a disappointing trip to South Carolina. The Rebels picked up a nice comeback victory over a top-100 RPI opponent, Austin Peay, in the midweek. The Rebels return to the road this weekend with just three regular-season SEC baseball weekends remaining.
Ole Miss will take on the Sooners of Oklahoma and attempt to pick up back-to-back ranked series victories. There is still a ton to play for Ole Miss, as they are just on the outside looking in on a hosting spot, according to D1 Baseball. A series win against #21 Oklahoma would go a long way toward moving them to the right side of the bubble. Overall, it has been a great bounce-back year for Ole Miss, and it feels really good to have meaningful baseball back in May.
The Sooners enter this game 30-13 overall and 11-10 in the SEC. They are also currently on a two-game skid. Last weekend, Oklahoma traveled to Athens and took game one from the Bulldogs but dropped the next two in close ones. Their midweek game was canceled, so their bullpen will be well-rested for the weekend.
The Rebels' bullpen, which has been thin at times this season, took a big hit this week; Junior Brayden Jones was lost for the remainder of the season after suffering a torn UCL in his outing against Austin Peay. While Jones has been up and down this season, his electric fastball was impactful in the middle of the bullpen.
With this news, the value of Hudson Calhoun has increased considerably. Calhoun has continued to develop this season and has been good in his last three appearances. He has struck out 11 of his previous 17 batters. Another player who has continued to develop and will be needed for this team to make a run in the postseason is Freshman Cade Townsend, who had the best outing of his career, throwing over four innings this Tuesday.
The Rebels are rolling out the same rotation again. Hunter Elliott will get the ball against Sooner ace Kyson Witherspoon. Witherspoon has been incredible this season and was dominant against Georgia last weekend, throwing seven innings and only allowing one run. Elliott has been solid for Ole Miss but has not had a dominant start yet. Tonight would be a great spot.
Riley Maddox will start on Saturday, and he is coming off his best season, which started last weekend against Vandy. Maddox has started to come into his own for the most part, and hopefully, he will deliver once again. He will match up against Oklahoma's left-hander Cade Crossland, who has not been great this year and is coming off allowing seven earned runs against Georgia. Mason Nichols will start Sunday. He got roughed up last weekend but has, more often than not, been good to provide a solid four innings. Oklahoma will start Malachi Witherspoon, who is Kyson's twin brother.
The Oklahoma lineup is solid 1-9 but lacks a true superstar. Outfielder Trey Gambill leads the way, hitting .319, and has an impressive OBP of over .500. Jaxon Willits and Easton Carmichael are the two power threats with 9 and 10 home runs respectably, and have slugging percentages over .560
This is a big weekend for the Rebels and the Sooners as the winner of this series stays alive for a slot, and the loser's path to hosting gets pretty narrow, especially for the Sooners.
The series begins tonight at 6:30 CT. Game 2 is on Saturday at four, and Game 3 will be at two on Sunday. All of the games will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.