Ole Miss picked to finish near the bottom of the Western Division by SEC coaches
The bounce-back season that is 2024 for the Ole Miss baseball team is going to be a road paved obstacles as Southeastern Conference coaches do not see this spring going much better than 2023 did.
In the follow-up to the national championship run that was Summer 2022 the Rebels went 25-29 last season, missing the SEC Tournament and the entire postseason.
On Thursday the SEC released the 2024 Preseason Coaches Poll where Ole Miss was picked to finish sixth in the Western Division, receiving 32 votes and did not receive a first place vote. Mississippi State was picked to finish seventh with 23 votes.
Arkansas, which received nine first-place votes and nine votes to be the 2024 SEC Champion, was picked to win the Western Division. LSU (second), Texas A&M (third), Alabama (fourth) and Auburn (fifth) rounded out the division picks.
Florida is picked to win the Eastern Division with 88 votes and 11 first-place vote. Tennessee (75 votes), Vanderbilt (73), South Carolina (50), Kentucky (44), Georgia (36) and Missouri (19) made up the rest of the East picks.
Behind the Razorbacks, LSU received three votes to win the SEC Championship and Florida was the other team with two votes.
Despite Ole Miss appearing to have a tough season ahead once again, losing presumed weekend starter Xavier Rivas for the year with a UCL injury last weekend, their is confidence within the program.
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A focused effort to hit the transfer portal and bring in older and experienced players looks to have been successful on paper, providing a boost to the offense.
“I liked what I saw at the plate in fall ball,” said Ole Miss hitting coach Mike Clement earlier this week. “We still have work to do, but the intel I gathered in fall indicates to me we should have a quality offensive team. I believe we will score a lot of runs when all is said and done.”
Outside of fellow SEC coaches the national media is also not seeing Ole Miss having a potentially successful 2024.
Baseball America released its Preseason Field of 64 and Ole Miss was among the First Four Teams out and projected to miss the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season after winning it all two years ago.
