As the regular season winds down, Southern Miss stayed put while Mississippi State and Ole Miss fell in the latest D1Baseball rankings.
The Golden Eagles (34-14, 16-8 Sun Belt) held tightly to their No. 12 ranking after a mostly-successful week. After getting walked off at Tulane on Tuesday, Christian Ostrander’s club returned home, where it took care of sweeping business in a three-game series versus Louisiana Monroe. Pitching was the highlight for the black and gold with Saturday starter Camden Clark notably recording 15 strikeouts.
Southern Miss will skip midweek action this week and head straight into a road series at James Madison.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs (36-12, 14-10 SEC) moved down one spot to No. 11. Brian O’Connor’s club dominated the Governor’s Cup on Tuesday, mounting a perfect record versus Ole Miss this season, before dropping two of three at No. 4 Texas. The maroon and white, after winning game two, led 5-0 in Sunday’s rubber match but was outscored 11-1 the rest of the way.
Mississippi State will host Nicholls on Tuesday night before welcoming a red-hot No. 6 Auburn to Dudy Noble Field.
The Rebels (32-17, 12-12 SEC) fell three spots to No. 20 after losing to their in-state rival on Tuesday and suffering a sixth straight series loss to Arkansas. After effectively counter punching the Razorbacks in game two with an 11-4 win, Mike Bianco’s club was on the wrong end of a two-run walk-off long ball in the bottom of the ninth of Sunday’s rubber match.
Ole Miss will enjoy a midweek break before welcoming No. 9 Texas A&M to Swayze Field.
As things stand, just two weekend series remain for all three Mississippi clubs. Currently, Mississippi State and Southern Miss are sitting pretty as prospective NCAA Tournament hosts with the Bulldogs boasting the No. 9 RPI and the Golden Eagles having the No. 10 RPI. Ole Miss, with the No. 13 RPI, has work to do after losing five of its last seven games.
The full top 25 can be viewed below:
- UCLA
- North Carolina
- Georgia Tech
- Texas
- Georgia
- Auburn
- Kansas
- Coastal Carolina
- Texas A&M
- Oregon State
- Mississippi State
- Southern Miss
- Oregon
- Florida State
- West Virginia
- Arizona State
- Arkansas
- USC
- Alabama
- Ole Miss
- Florida
- Boston College
- Virginia
- Oklahoma
- Nebraska
