Emilee Boyer through a complete game shutout in the first round of the SEC softball tournament to lift 13-seed Ole Miss to a 2-0 win over 12-seed South Carolina.
Now the Lady Rebels (33-23, 6-18 SEC) move on to the second round against the 5-seed Tennessee Volunteers (42-9, 16-8 SEC) with a chance to advance to the quarterfinals against 4-seed Texas.
But before fans get too ahead of itself dreaming of upset wins Ole Miss did itself a helping of good on Tuesday with the win over top 25 South Carolina.
While its conference record is nothing to brag about, the Lady Rebels moved up two spots in the latest RPI rankings to now sit at No. 21 nationally according to D1Softball.com.
The absolute gauntlet of SEC play with top 25 teams all over Ole Miss’ schedule gives this team the No. 3 strength of schedule in the country. Sitting above .500 gives them a good chance to make the NCAA Tournament, but I would like to think this team wants a little more than that. Can a couple upsets boost them into the conversation to host a regional? It’s a longshot to even get those wins and maybe even a longer shot to host, but the recent series win over Mississippi State to cap off the regular season and then a potential deep SEC run could make things very interesting for the selection committee.
If the Rebels are going to pull off the upset on Wednesday, it will most likely be in a very low scoring game again. The Lady Vols pitching staff has allowed only 84 runs ALL SEASON with 18 shutouts and an ERA of 1.32. On the flip side, Ole Miss has a team ERA of 3.99 with 11 shutouts on the season.
But how did these two teams fare when they met in the regular season? Well, Tennessee took two of three in Knoxville with two games ending in 2-1 wins for the Vols and the series finale going to the Rebels in a 4-3 final.
So, yeah, Ole Miss is an underdog going into the second round, but it is playing well and can beat Tennessee as seen just a little over a month ago. If the scoreboard can get lit up early, anything is possible in this game.
