OXFORD — For the 20th time in program history, the Ole Miss baseball team has earned a berth in the NCAA tournament, the organization’s selection committee announced Monday.
The Rebels (30-26) received an at-large bid to play at the Los Angeles Regional. Ole Miss will be the No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 seed Maryland at 6 p.m. Friday at Jackie Robinson Stadium on the campus of UCLA, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3 as well as the Ole Miss Radio Network.
UCLA will face No. 4 seed CSU Bakersfield in the other game Friday. The four teams will battle it out in a double-elimination format with the victor earning a spot to a NCAA Super Regional.
“Postseason is always the most exciting time of the season,” Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. “We are excited for our guys to start the Road to Omaha.”
The Rebels are heading to the NCAA tournament for the 13th time in 15 seasons under Bianco. Ole Miss has also made five NCAA Super Regional appearances during the Bianco era. Last year, Ole Miss made its first trip to the College World Series since 1972, finishing third in the nation. The Diamond Rebels won as host of a regional before taking two-of-three from Louisiana Lafayette in a NCAA Super Regional to lock up the trip to Omaha.
Ole Miss has won six of its last eight games to reach the 30-win plateau for the 18th-straight season. The Rebels faced eight tournament teams this season, compiling a record of 11-11 against them for the nation’s toughest schedule. The Ole Miss went 7-6 against top-10 teams, including 5-4 versus No. 1 ranked teams with series wins against Florida and Vanderbilt, who were ranked No. 1 at the time.
Ole Miss is scheduled to start senior left-hander Christian Trent (7-6, 3.70 ERA) against Maryland, which likely will turn to 6-foot-3 right-hander Mike Shawaryn. A 32nd-round selection by the Kansas City Royals in the 2013 Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft, the sophomore is 12-2 with a 1.65 ERA. In 103 1/3 innings, Shawaryn has struck out 124 and walked 23.
Southern Mississippi left out
While Ole Miss earned an invitation, Southern Mississippi didn’t receive a bid even though it had a 36-18-1 record and a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) of 46. The NCAA tournament selection committee uses RPI, which gauges a team’s strength, as a tool to pick the at-large teams it invites to the tournament.
Maryland (51 RPI), South Florida (23), Oregon (64), and Clemson (58) were listed as the last four teams into the tournament on ESPNU’s broadcast of the NCAA tournament field. North Carolina (27), Missouri (54), Michigan State (50), and Southern Miss as the last four left out.
“Anytime you get to those points where you’re on the bubble and considering a number of teams, one thing that has struck me is this has compressed so much. Our coaches are listening and our programs are listening,” NCAA tournament committee chairman Dave Meeke said on the selection show. “The fine lines that are drawn makes it very, very difficult. Teams are very similar. When we scrub it down, we look for those teams who show some performance metrics on the field in a deserving fashion to be in the field. All very worthy of being in the field (but) it gets to a point where we have to put them side by side and really look at what’s the best team.
“We felt those who came in had just a little bit more on their resumes and deserved to be in.”
Southern Miss ended the regular season on a 13-game winning streak, but it went 1-2 in the Conference USA tournament in Hattiesburg.
The season certainly had its peaks — like sweeping Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Alabama in four games — and its valleys, but the Golden Eagles (36-18-1) finished the regular season on a 13-game winning streak and felt great about its chances. After dropping 2 of 3 games last week in the Conference USA tournament in Hattiesburg, some of the hope began to dwindle but USM remained confident.
“I thought we had a great resume and body of work,” USM sixth-year coach Scott Berry said. “I respect the committee and know it’s a hard job trying to select 33 at-large bids from a lot of schools who worked really hard. I don’t agree with their decision, but I don’t have to do that at all.
“We did so many good things and to just come up short and not see your name called, that hurt.”
Wire reports were included in this story.
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