The parade of top-25 opponents keeps rolling along this weekend with No. 21 Oklahoma entertaining No. 23 Ole Miss for three games at L. Dale Mitchell Park.
Of the seven conference opponents the Sooners have faced so far this season, their first as a member of the SEC, five remain ranked in the top 25. Ole Miss becomes the sixth.
The last time Oklahoma and Ole Miss faced each other in baseball was in the 2022 College World Series championship series. The Rebels swept the Sooners, 10-3 and 4-2, to win their first national championship in baseball.
Sooners host Ole Miss for another ranked SEC matchup
Prior to this weekend, the Sooners and Rebels have met just eight times, with Mississippi owning a 6-2 advantage in the all-time series. Ole Miss has been to Oklahoma twice previously, in 1992 and 1994, when the Sooners were members of the Big Eight Conference. The Rebels won two of the three games played in Norman.
Ole Miss (32-13, 12-9) has won five of its last six games, including two of three at home last weekend over No. 9 Vanderbilt. Oklahoma (30-13, 11-10) also won two of three at home against the Commodores earlier. The Sooners are hoping to rebound after losing two of three last weekend at No. 10 Georgia.
The Oklahoma series is Ole Miss' fourth SEC road conference of the season. The Rebels are 6-3 in those three prior series. The Sooners are 17-7 at home this season, but just 4-5 at home against SEC opponents.
The series opener on Friday at L. Dale Mitchell Park will start at 6:30 p.m. CT. Saturday's game is scheduled for 4 p.m., and the series finale on Sunday will start at 2 p.m. All three games can be viewed on SEC Network+.
What fans need to know
Oklahoma
- The Sooners are averaging 7.4 runs per game and holding opponents to 5.4 per game.
- Four OU starters are hitting above .300: junior Trey Gambill (.319), sophomore Jaxon Willits (.315), freshman Kyle Branch (.311) and junior Easton Carmichael (.310).
- The Oklahoma pitching staff, led by right-handed starter Kyson Witherspoon, ranks 39th in the country with an ERA of 4.40. Witherspoon's 2.35 ERA is second-best in the SEC and ranks 21st nationally. He has a record of 8-2 in 11 starts.
- The Sooners, with 52 home runs on the season, have hit at least one out of the yard in 22 of their last 31 games.
Ole Miss
- Junior third baseman Luke Hill leads Mississippi in hitting with a .349 average. Junior second baseman Judd Utermark and sophomore catcher Austin Fawley are tied for the home-run lead.
- Ole Miss ranks fourth in the SEC in home runs (86), fifth in runs (8.4 per game) and on-base percentage (.415), ninth in batting average (.291), and 11th in earned run average (4.66).
- The Ole Miss pitching staff ranks seventh in NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings with 11.3.
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