Ole Miss one of four SEC West teams to play in Omaha

OXFORD, Miss. (WLOX) - From the last team in, to one of the last teams standing. Ole Miss has seen it all this season, peaking at number one in the country and falling on the wrong side of the bubble near season’s end.

But that can be life in the SEC, the conference that has four of the eight teams headed to Omaha. None of them are the consensus number one team in the country in Tennessee, and all of them come from the SEC West: Texas A&M, Arkansas, Auburn, and the Rebels.

Ole Miss was a combined 4-5 against those three teams this season, and took two of three against Auburn, who they’ll face on Saturday.

Looking back and comparing where things stood a short time ago - when they weren’t certain they’d hear their name called at all - and to where they stand now, may be a surprise to some. To the Rebels, it’s just a testament to life in the SEC.

“It just goes to show that the SEC is a gauntlet, week in and week out,” first baseman Tim Elko said. “There’s a lot of real good teams in the SEC. And I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m really not that surprised because the teams are really just that good.”

“Probably there’s some baseball pundits out there that talked about the SEC being down or the SEC West, and then you wake up and look at the end of the year and it’s really not the case,” head coach Mike Bianco said. “I think that can happen in our league and you can get fooled. The teams are good, and the same teams may not be good every year or the best teams, but the league is so, so good.”

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