The Ole Miss baseball team will play 21 games against teams that competed in the NCAA Tournament last season, including five games against teams that advanced to the 2014 College World Series, head coach Mike Bianco announced Wednesday.
The Rebels will play a grueling 56-game schedule in 2015, featuring 21 games (37.5 percent) against teams with an RPI inside the top 30 last season. Of the Rebels’ 56 games, 31 will be hosted at Swayze Field, where the Rebels went 27-7 last season and won the NCAA Oxford Regional.
Ole Miss will play 11 of its 26 road games (42.3 percent) against NCAA Tournament teams from 2014, including a three-game series at defending NCAA Champion Vanderbilt April 10-12.
“We’re really excited about this schedule and how it can prepare us for the always rigorous SEC slate,” Bianco said. “We face a number of teams with high RPIs from a year ago, and nearly half of our road games are against NCAA Tournament teams. That will be great competition for our team, and we’re looking forward to taking it on.”
Ole Miss had a fantastic year last season, going 48-21, winning the Southeastern Conference Western Division Championship, hosting a regional and advancing all the way to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, where it was one of the final four teams remaining.
In addition to competing in the premier conference in all of college baseball, Ole Miss will face a non-conference schedule this year highlighted by a two-game road trip at Louisville March 10-11, which last season hosted an NCAA Regional and Super Regional and competed in the College World Series.
Ole Miss opens the season with its first eight games at home. The Rebels will face William & Mary Feb. 13-15, Arkansas State Feb 17, Wright State Feb. 20-22 and Central Arkansas Feb. 25 to start the year. Following road games against UCF and Southern Miss, Ole Miss will play its final non-conference weekend series March 6-8 when it hosts Stetson for a three-game series.
After the Rebels’ two-game, mid-week series at Louisville, they will open SEC play by heading south to face LSU March 13-15 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Ole Miss will also play conference road series at Arkansas March 27-29, Vanderbilt April 10-12, Auburn April 17-19 and Missouri May 1-3.
Ole Miss will host five SEC series, beginning with Florida on March 20 through 22 and followed by Tennessee April 3-5, Alabama April 24-26, Mississippi State May 8-10 and Texas A&M May 14-16.
During the arduous SEC slate, Ole Miss will have five non-conference midweek tilts at home against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on March 18, UAB March 24-25, UT-Martin on April 15 and Memphis on April 22. Ole Miss will also have four non-conference midweek games outside of Oxford against Memphis on March 31 at AutoZone Park, Southern Miss on April 7 in Pearl, Mississippi, Mississippi State in the Governor’s Cup on April 28 in Pearl and Arkansas State on May 12.
The SEC Tournament will once again be held in Hoover, Alabama, at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium May 19-24. It is the 18th straight year the premier conference tournament has been held at The Hoover Met.
The Rebels return 20 players from last season’s team and welcome in 18 newcomers, including 12 freshmen and six transfers.
It was the 12th time in 14 seasons under Bianco the Rebels advanced to the NCAA Tournament, which is the most postseason appearances by a head coach in school history, and is one of the best active stretches of NCAA postseason participation by any program in the country.
