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Ole Miss unable to complete sweep of No. 6 Auburn, earns first round bye in SEC Tournament

11by:Jake Thompson•05/17/25•

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Ole Miss infielder Luke Hill (7) and outfielder Mitchell Sanford (4). Mandatory credit: Ole Miss athletics

All the things that are good and all the things that are bad with this Ole Miss baseball team in Saturday’s regular series finale.

The Rebels dropped the final game to No. 6 Auburn, 13-8, and did not mange to get the sweep but it was a game they had in hand until the last four innings.

With a five-run lead the Tigers scored five runs in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game. A misplayed ball by Mitchell Sanford allowed the tying run to score. Auburn then scored a pair of runs in the seventh to take the lead for good, tacking on three more in the ninth.

After flashing more of the good with pitching and offense stringing runs together the poor pitching and defense returned at an untimely moment on the weekend.

The Rebels committed three errors that all resulted in Auburn runs. The bullpen was not as full strength as anticipated, either. Will McCausland was not available for Saturday after he got hot on Friday to be the emergency button if Connor Spencer could not close out the game when Auburn rallied in the late innings., which was a 15-11 Ole Miss win.

To make matters worse Mason Nichols left the game in the fourth inning with an oblique injury, according to Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. The extent of the injury was unknown postgame. This left the bullpen thin with Gunnar Dennis, Taylor Rabe, Ryne Rodriguez, Hudson Calhoun, Alex Canney and Landon Waters to work the final 5.1 innings.

“Obviously the three errors stick out and, it’s true, you got to make the plays, but there’s enough blame to go around,” Bianco said. “We got off to a hot start and their closer came in and we didn’t do much the second half of the game. We had some traffic early but we couldn’t extend innings and get the big hit. We kind of got stagnant, offensively. When you make errors you got to make pitches, too.”

Ole Miss finishes the regular season without the uncertainty of reaching postseason for the first time in three years.

Not since 2021, when the Rebels hosted a Regional, has the stress of needing to a run during the SEC Tournament not existed. Even in 2022 things felt over until the last team flashed on the screen and then history happened.

This is an Ole Miss team that showed improvement this season. A 2 or 3 Seed in someone else’s regional felt like the ceiling when things got going. But as the year progressed those expectations changed and the Rebels have a résumé to put on the table and force the discussion when it comes to hosting.

Does the SEC Tournament mean anything anymore to the selection committee? Do the Rebels need to make a run and stay in Hoover for a bit? Hard to say and the answer really will not be known until the morning of Memorial Day.

For now Ole Miss is back in the postseason comfortably and will see what it can do from here to try and play at least two more games inside Oxford-University Stadium.

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