Rebuilding Mississippi teams get no respect from national baseball polls

Not a single Mississippi team is ranked in the Division I college baseball preseason polls, which is unusual. Not one.

Not Mississippi State, the 2021 national champion and a program that has been to the College World Series 12 times and qualified for 39 NCAA Tournaments.

Not Ole Miss, the 2022 national champion, which has won eight NCAA Regional championships since 2005.

Not Southern Miss, which has won three NCAA Regionals since 2009, has hosted back-to-back Super Regionals and averaged 44 victories a season over the last seven full seasons.

There are significant reasons why the national pollsters give the Mississippi schools so little respect:

State won only nine of 30 SEC games last season mostly because pitches didn’t go where the Bulldogs aimed. Last season, the Bulldogs walked a whopping 321 batters in 453 innings. That right there will get you beat. Little wonder the Bulldogs’ earned run average was 7.01. No matter how well you can hit — and State can swing it — you will not succeed giving up seven earned runs a game.

Ole Miss followed its storybook national championship season of 2022 by winning only six SEC games last year and suffering a losing record (25-29) overall. It was almost as if the Rebels had made a deal with the devil during that storybook championship run, because just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong in ’23.

Southern Miss won 46 games last year and came up one victory short of the CWS, but must replace six position starters, one of the best starting pitchers in its history Tanner Hall and an All America closer in Justin Storm. And, oh yeah, Christian Ostrander replaces the venerable Scott Berry as the Golden Eagles’ head coach.

Clearly, all three Mississippi schools enter the 2024 season, which begins Friday, with much to prove. Nevertheless, history tells us one or more will surprise the national pundits and be in the championship hunt at season’s end.

All three open Friday:

Ole Miss plays a fourgame series at Honolulu beginning Friday night against a good Hawaii team that finished 18-12 in the baseballstrong Big West Conference in 2023. This is no cupcake opener. Hawaii swept Tulane and won two of three games against Big Ten teams at Minneapolis last spring. Hawaii also won 19 of 26 home games, including its last nine.

Mississippi State will play host to Air Force, another quality mid-level program that is picked to finish third in the Big West Conference. Air Force won the Big West two years ago and was the runnerup last year.

Southern Miss will open against Marist (NY) College of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The Marist Red Foxes have made seven NCAA Tournament appearances, none since 2017. Marist was 16-36 a year ago.

To solve last season’s pitching problems, Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis brought in Justin Parker, who has been successful handling pitchers at both Indiana and South Carolina. The educated guess here is that Parker’s mantra has been simple and to the point: Throw strikes. Lemonis believes the talent is there. If the Bulldogs can successfully mix and match pitchers and not give so many free passes, this is a lineup that can swing it. Outfielder Dakota Jordan is rated the No. 27 prospect in this summer’s Major League Draft by mlb.com.

At Ole Miss, Mike Bianco has taken a page from Lane Kiffin’s football book and added significantly to his roster from the transfer portal. The Rebels’ 2024 success – or lack of same – will depend greatly on the contributions of these transfers: first baseman Jackson Ross (Florida Atlantic), shortstop Luke Hill (Arizona State), third baseman Andrew Fisher (Duke), outfielder Treyson Hughes (Mercer) and pitchers Kyler Carmack (Arkansas State) and Liam Doyle (Coastal Carolina). That’s a lot of new faces – and there are more – but when you were 6-24 and dead last in your conference, new faces are a good thing.

Yes, Southern Miss lost two All Americans on the mound, but Ostrander believes his 2024 pitching staff will be deeper and possibly even more talented. The starting lineup likely will include only two players (right fielder Carson Paetow and designated hitter Slade Wilkes) at their 2023 positions, but speedy and athletic Nick Monstere moves from second base to centerfield. Ostrander, too, added several notable portal transfers, including shortstop Ozzie Pratt (BYU), second baseman Nolan Tucker (Valparaiso) and outfielder Billy Butler (Rhode Island). Look out for talented freshman shortstop Seth Smith, son of former Major Leaguer Jason Smith, to make an impact somewhere before his rookie season is over.

Rick Cleveland, a native of Hattiesburg and resident of Jackson, has been Mississippi Today’s sports columnist since 2016.