World Series Roadblock: Everything Auburn Baseball Fans Need to Know About Ole Miss

This weekend, the Auburn Tigers will see a foe that they’ve seen often throughout conference play over the years as their only obstacle between them and Omaha.

The Tigers will face Ole Miss at Plainsman Park in the super regional round of the NCAA Tournament. Auburn will only need two wins out of three possible opportunities to have the opportunity to make the trip out west with a national championship on its mind.

However, the Rebels have plenty of ways to win, doing so in various ways to get out of the Lincoln Regional, which was hosted by Nebraska. They’re looking to make their trip to the Plains quick to get back to the College World Series for the first time since the 2022 season.

Here’s what Auburn fans should know about their next opponent, including where they could find ways to win.

How They Got Here

Despite losing three of its last four games before the NCAA Tournament, which included a one-and-done trip in the SEC Tournament, Ole Miss had a strong response in Lincoln, Nebraska, not losing a game to make it to the next round of the postseason.

The Rebels blew a late three-run lead against Arizona State in the first game, then walked it off in the bottom of the 14th inning to move to the winner’s bracket in their first contest. Then, they took down the hosts, Nebraska, scoring six runs between the sixth and eighth innings to get to the regional championship.

Ole Miss’s last game of the regional was another extra-inning win, coming back from an early deficit and used a sacrifice fly in the tenth inning to get to the next round.

Just from their time in the Lincoln Regional, the Rebels won double the number of extra-inning games that they saw in the regular season, an optimistic approach when facing an Auburn team that uses its pitching to keep games close.

Strengths

Similar to any SEC team, Ole Miss is battle-tested, holding an RPI of 14 and the fourth-best strength of schedule in the country. Non-conference games included games against Coastal Carolina, Southern Miss and Little Rock, which is in the supers for the first time in program history.

Pitching is another strength for the Rebels. They are 33rd in ERA at 4.47, which is also fifth in the SEC in the statistic. That includes only 3.39 walks per game, which is 16th in the country as well. Ole Miss leads the SEC in strikeouts, which will be critical for Auburn to keep that number low.

On the hitting side, the Rebels will use the long ball to help win games. They average 1.8 homers per game, which is in the top 20 in the country. Head coach Mike Bianco’s group relies on that momentum for runs to come in, but that can also stall out at times.

Auburn has seen teams that are higher in some of these statistics as well, although baseball changes with each day. Keeping the Rebels off the bases and preventing home runs will be the key to getting to Omaha next week.

Weaknesses

Ole Miss wasn’t the best in SEC play, finishing with a .500 record and losing in the first round of the SEC Tournament to lowest seed Missouri. Though Auburn and the Rebels haven’t played this season, they tend to have lower averages than those in non-conference play.

Bianco’s team strikes out a lot. Ole Miss was last in the SEC in total strikeouts in conference play, being put out 350 times in 30 games. Its strikeout rate was at 32.1% over the course of this season, which was 304th in the country. For the Auburn arms, that will be key.

While in conference play, the Rebels’ ERA was slightly inflated, typical when playing other SEC teams each week, but they gave up plenty of home runs. 1.37 long balls allowed is outside the top 100 in the country, and the Tigers will look to take advantage of that after their bats caught fire to end their regional round.

There’s a path to victory for Auburn, and it involves limiting the big hits while taking advantage of its batters who are in form. That will be pointed towards catcher Chase Fralick, who hit a program-record six home runs in the regional round to continue to fire up the Plainsman Park crowd.

Ole Miss Names to Know:

INF Judd Utermark: .308 AVG, .634 SLG (leads team), .1055 OPS (leads team), 21 HR, 49 RBIs.

OF Tristan Bissetta: .281 AVG, .618 SLG, .1009 OPS, 22 HR and 60 RBIs (leads team in both)

1B Will Furniss: .319 AVG (leads team), .905 OPS, 69 hits, 54 RBIs, .433 OBP (leads team)

RHP Cade Townsend: 3.94 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 88 Ks, 5-3 record

RHP Taylor Rabe: 3.84 ERA (leads team), 1.03 WHIP (leads team), 63.1 IP, 90 Ks, 5-3 record

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