The Road to Omaha Starts Here: Ole Miss Hosts Loaded Oxford Regional

OXFORD, Miss. — As the 2025 NCAA Baseball Tournament kicks off this weekend, Ole Miss enters the Oxford Regional as the No. 10 overall seed, hosting Murray State, Georgia Tech, and Western Kentucky at Swayze Field.

With a 40–19 record, series wins against NCAA tournament teams Florida and Kentucky and hosts Vanderbilt and Auburn, coupled with a recent SEC Tournament runner-up finish, the Rebels are the clear favorites and will begin regional play with no shortage of momentum. But while the path to Omaha runs through Oxford, it won’t be a cakewalk.

The Rebels boast an impressive, experienced and battle-tested lineup and a deep pitching staff, led by ace Hunter Elliott as well as Riley Maddox and Mason Nichols, all of whom were a part of the 2022 national-championship winning squad.

The Rebels enjoy one of the strongest home-field advantages of any team in the country at Swayze Field, backed by one of the nation’s most passionate and intimidating fanbases and a strong track record—winning seven of ten regionals hosted in Oxford prior to this season. Throw in the fact that the Rebels won all but two home series in the regular season while playing in the toughest conference in the nation (with the two homes series losses coming at the hands of fellow hosts Arkansas and Tennessee) and it will be anything but easy for any team not named Ole Miss to leave Oxford as regional champions.

But the other teams that will be playing in Oxford—including No. 2 seed Georgia Tech—are not to be overlooked. The Yellow Jackets will be arriving in Oxford with a chip on their shoulder, feeling snubbed and disrespected over not being chosen to host after winning the ACC regular season title and posting a 40-17 record, likely feeling that they have something to prove.

Georgia Tech’s lineup is led by reigning ACC Player of the Year Drew Burress, a power-hitting center fielder who boasted a .381 batting average and 25 home runs last season. Combined with a deep and experienced pitching staff that includes Jaylen Braden, Mason Patel and Brady Jones—all of whom have had several standout performances and no-hit innings—defeating Georgia Tech will likely not be an easy task should the Rebels face the Yellow Jackets at any point in the regional, and doing so will almost certainly require Ole Miss to be better offensively than they were in the SEC tournament. The Rebels only managed 12 runs in four games despite making it all the way to the title game.

Furthermore, Georgia Tech is not the only team who’ll be playing in Oxford this weekend that the Rebels will need to be cautious about. Conference USA Tournament champion Western Kentucky will be arriving in Oxford with an impressive 46-12 record on the year, while the 39-13 Murray State Racers, a team that nearly took down the Rebels in a midweek regular season game back in March after forcing extra innings, round out the regional.

In short, Georgia Tech, Western Kentucky and Murray State all know how to win, and none have any plans to make life easy for the Rebels.

For the Rebels to advance, they’ll need clean defense, clutch hitting, and quality starts—all the things they’ve shown flashes of throughout the season. They can’t afford lapses, especially against a Georgia Tech team capable of turning a few mistakes into crooked numbers.

The good news? Ole Miss has the tools to get it done. This is a team that’s battle-tested in the SEC and knows what it takes to survive the madness of June. But unlike some regionals past, this one will demand their full focus from first pitch to final out.

Oxford may be home, but the road to Omaha still runs uphill. Fortunately for Rebel Nation, this team looks ready to climb.

Next up: 

Ole Miss opens the Oxford Regional against Murray State on Friday, May 30 with first pitch set for 7:00 p.m. CT. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.