Up on Rocky Top starting tonight!

Ole Miss (27-11, 8-7 SEC) has won six games in a row and eight of its last nine games after what seemed to be a low point when it was swept by rival Mississippi State in Oxford. Tennessee (25-12, 7-8 SEC) is riding a five game win streak of its own including a sweep of MSU in Starkville last weekend.

PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUPS

Friday 5:30 p.m. CT
Ole Miss: LHP Hunter Elliott (3-1, 3.69 ERA)
Tennessee: RHP Landon Mack (3-2, 3.75 ERA)

Saturday, 5 p.m. CT
Ole Miss: RHP Cade Townsend (3-1, 2.02 ERA)
Tennessee: RHP Tegan Kuhns (2-3, 3.77 ERA)

Sunday, 12 p.m. CT
Ole Miss: RHP Taylor Rabe (3-1, 3.16 ERA)
Tennesseee: LHP Evan Blanco (3-2, 3.67 ERA)

We are 8-7 at the halfway point. We need to finish 16-14 and no worse than 6th to guarantee a Host spot.

Projected Hosts from East Coast (ACC heavy):

UNC
Coastal Carolina
Virginia
Ga Tech
Fl St
WVA

West Coast:

UCLA
Oregon St
USC
Oregon St???

SEC:

No more than 6 spots for the following 8 teams:

Miss State
Texas
Texas AM
Georgia
Alabama
Auburn
Oklahoma
Ole Miss

Two of these teams will be left out. We have to prevent being swept and win 3 of the last 5 series.
Only 2 of which will be home stands:

Tennessee
Georgia (Oxford)
Arkansas
Texas AM (Oxford)
Alabama

It might come down having to win 2 of 3 in Tuscaloosa on the final weekend to make this happen.

Back to the weekend stand in Knoxville:

Each of our three starters have given up 2 or fewer runs in each of their last two starts. And Hooks has emerged as a dominant closer. We can keep games close.

But we still aren't swinging it well enough to make a post season run. Coming out of the State debacle we were hitting .218 in conference play. Second worse only behind USC. After two decent weekends we have raised that to .242. But we need to be hitting in the .275-.280 range. We draw a high number of walks and hit batters. And our pitchers don't walk many in return.

Should be fun. We need to go 2-1 this weekend. If we go 1-2 here, we essentially have to win 3 of the last 4 series to Host.

Losing that Friday night game to State leading in the 8th and leaving Rabe in instead of bringing in Hooks for the top of the 9th will turn out to be a breathtaking mistake that might cost us a post season position.