The college baseball postseason is knocking on the door, and the Ole Miss Rebels are heading to Hoover with something to prove.<\/p>\n
The SEC Tournament isn\u2019t just a trophy hunt for this team \u2014 it\u2019s a chance to climb back into the regional hosting conversation before the NCAA Tournament bracket drops.<\/p>\n
Ole Miss enters Hoover Metropolitan Stadium as the 9 seed in the SEC Tournament. Their first test comes Tuesday morning when they take on 16 seed Missouri at 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
Win that one and the Rebs would face 8 seed Mississippi State on Wednesday at the same time. Keep winning and there\u2019s a potential quarterfinal matchup with 1 seed Georgia on Thursday at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n
The Rebels know what\u2019s at stake. A 36-20 overall record and a 15-15 mark in SEC play tell you this is a team good enough to compete but one that needs to finish strong.<\/p>\n
Dropping the regular-season finale series at Alabama didn\u2019t help. Three wins in Hoover, though, could put regional hosting back within reach.<\/p>\n
Libbert Gets the Ball Tuesday<\/p>\n
Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco is making a calculated move to open tournament play.<\/p>\n
Rather than going with one of his weekend starters \u2014 Hunter Elliott was considered \u2014 the Rebs are sending transfer left-hander Wil Libbert to the mound against Missouri, his former team.<\/p>\n
The thinking here is straightforward. The NCAA Tournament starts within two weeks and Bianco doesn\u2019t want to put unnecessary miles on his rotation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to win tomorrow and the championship but not at a cost that affects next week,\u201d Bianco told 247Sports. \u201cWe\u2019ve asked so much of our weekend starters and they wanted the ball, but would they be less next week? It was a hard decision, but once we made it, I felt better. It\u2019s the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Libbert\u2019s numbers this season haven\u2019t been clean, a 6.98 ERA with 46 strikeouts and 18 walks in 40 innings, but he\u2019s shown improvement lately.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s surrendered just one earned run across his past six innings combined against Mississippi State and UT Martin. If that version of Libbert shows up Tuesday, Ole Miss is in decent shape.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just execution,\u201d Libbert said. \u201cNot let it be over the middle of the plate. That\u2019s where I\u2019ve been hurt, among other things. Really making sure my eyes are in the right spot when I deliver the pitch. Look at the exact spot, not the whole plate.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll face a legitimate arm in Missouri\u2019s Josh McDevitt, who carries a 4.03 ERA with 94 strikeouts in 73.2 innings.<\/p>\n
McDevitt threw just 53 pitches last week after averaging at least 93 in 11 straight starts, so he\u2019s likely to be fresh. Bianco and his staff clearly believe in Libbert\u2019s ability to handle the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think he\u2019s really good and know what kind of competitor he is,\u201d Bianco said. \u201cHe imagined this year to be different, but maybe he makes a few better pitches and gets on a roll. We\u2019ve seen these stories. All of a sudden, it turns around.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Ole Miss gets past Missouri, Elliott is expected to face the Bulldogs on Wednesday \u2014 exactly the kind of big-game assignment the weekend staff was built for.<\/p>\n
Where Rebs Stand in NCAA Field of 64<\/p>\n
Monday brought the final round of Field of 64 projections ahead of conference tournament week, and Ole Miss still holds solid ground despite the Alabama stumble.<\/p>\n
Both major outlets had the Rebels as the 18 National Seed going into the bracket.<\/p>\n
D1Baseball projects Ole Miss landing in the Lawrence Regional with 15 National Seed Kansas serving as the host. Miami (Ohio) fills the No. 3 seed spot with SIU Edwardsville rounding out the field as the 4 seed.<\/p>\n
That regional pairs with the Atlanta Regional in the Super Regional round, which could set up a matchup against No. 2 Georgia Tech, who bring in Oklahoma as a 2 seed alongside East Carolina and Yale.<\/p>\n
Baseball America sees things slightly differently, placing the Rebels in the Eugene Regional with 15 National Seed Oregon as the host. That projection\u2019s regional is a bit tougher on paper, with Virginia slotted as the 3 seed and Washington State at 4.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Baseball America also pairs that bracket with the Atlanta Regional for the Super Regional round \u2014 same destination, different road.<\/p>\n
Both projections agree on one thing: Ole Miss has the profile of a tournament team. The Rebs aren\u2019t on the bubble. They\u2019re projected as a top-half national seed. That\u2019s meaningful.<\/p>\n
These numbers aren\u2019t locked in, though. Every win in Hoover moves the needle upward. Every loss tightens things.<\/p>\n
The projections update daily as conference tournaments play out across the country.<\/p>\n
ABS System Debuts in Hoover<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another wrinkle to this week\u2019s SEC Tournament that doesn\u2019t have anything to do with seeding.<\/p>\n
The conference is debuting the Automated Ball Strike system \u2014 ABS \u2014 making Ole Miss and the rest of the field part of the first college baseball games to use the technology at this level.<\/p>\n
The setup mirrors what MLB has tested. Each team gets three challenges to start the game. Umpires call pitches as usual but a hitter, pitcher or catcher can challenge the call.<\/p>\n
Successful challenges carry over and there\u2019s a bonus challenge for each extra inning.<\/p>\n
The SEC\u2019s strike zone for the tournament will be 19 inches wide \u2014 two inches wider than the professional standard \u2014 and will span from 23 to 58 percent of the batter\u2019s height.<\/p>\n
The pitch path shows up on the video board and on the TV broadcast. Every player gets measured for their individual zone.<\/p>\n
Ole Miss catcher Austin Fawley is looking forward to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be fun and test my ability,\u201d Fawley said. \u201cI think it\u2019ll be good for us hitting with Furniss and Decker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoover has been a proving ground for rule changes before. The green safety bag at first base, replay review and the pitch clock all got early runs in Hoover before becoming standard in college baseball. ABS looks like the next one.<\/p>\n
Bianco had measured optimism about the new system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows what kind of league we play in, that we\u2019re able to do this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s cutting edge and I hope I don\u2019t end up with egg on my face, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be the difference in the game. I applaud them for doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The path forward for Ole Miss this week is clear: win the opener, protect the pitching staff and keep climbing the seed line. The NCAA baseball tournament is close enough to see from here.<\/p>\n
How far Hoover takes them is up to the Rebs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The college baseball postseason is knocking on the door, and the Ole Miss Rebels are heading to Hoover…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[88391,5,648,20526,88392,8874,13823,1694,2341,6335,7962,7963,5981,88393,88394],"class_list":["post-702766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-college-baseball","tag-abs-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-college-baseball","tag-college-baseball-postseason","tag-field-of-64-projections","tag-hoover-metropolitan-stadium","tag-mike-bianco","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-baseball","tag-ncaa-baseball-tournament","tag-ole-miss-baseball","tag-ole-miss-rebels-baseball","tag-rebels","tag-sec-tournament-2026","tag-wil-libbert"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116599129638848343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}