Ole Miss releases 2019 Schedule

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OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss released its 2019 baseball schedule on Wednesday, 153 days before the Rebels welcome Wright State to Swayze Field to open the new season. The schedule features an exciting list of opponents, highlighted by three NCAA College World Series participants, four Super Regional teams, and nine postseason baseball teams from a year ago. The slew of talent facing the Rebels also features five teams that finished the 2018 season ranked in the top 25.

The Rebels will kick off 2019 with 13 of their first 16 games at Oxford-University Stadium, opening the early homestretch on Feb. 15 with a three-game series versus Wright State. The 56-game slate will allow the Rebels 31 games with home field advantage, in a stadium that once again finished second in the nation in attendance a year ago, as well as broke a new school record in average attendance with 8,965.

Highlighting the season is a visit to Oxford from Florida, who spent most of the 2018 year topping collegiate rankings, for the first time since 2015, as well as a two-game, midweek series versus Louisville and former Rebel Dan McDonnell. Coach Mike Bianco will again have a chance to face off against a former protégé when he and the Rebels welcome East Carolina and one-time Ole Miss assistant Cliff Godwin for a midweek game in March.

The home stretch to open the year is broken up by a three-game road swing in New Orleans against Tulane. Fans will have an opportunity to get the Mardi Gras festivities started early by traveling with the Rebels to take on the Green Wave (Feb. 22-24). The following weekend, the Rebels welcome a perennial West Coast power in Long Beach State (Mar. 1-3), who is coming to Oxford to cap off a home-and-home series that began with a trip to California last year. The Rebels will also see Arkansas State (Feb. 19) and UT Martin (Feb. 26). The following week, Ole Miss will welcome Little Rock (Mar. 5) to town for a Tuesday night game, as well as East Carolina (Mar. 6), who hosted a regional in 2018, for a Wednesday encore.

The Rebels’ next weekend series comes against the Blazers of UAB (Mar. 8-10), but another test faces Ole Miss on the road just two days after the conclusion of the UAB series. Louisville awaits the Rebels for a two-game, midweek series Mar. 12-13, as Bianco and Ole Miss face off against former assistant Dan McDonnell and the nationally prominent Louisville Cardinals.

SEC play will begin in mid-March with a three-game series against Alabama (Mar. 15-17) at Swayze Field. A midweek opponent in Arkansas Pine Bluff (Mar. 19) lies between the Crimson Tide series and a trip to Columbia, Missouri, where the Rebels will take on the Missouri Tigers (Mar. 22-24) for a three-game series in just the two teams’ 18, 19, and 20 meetings of all time.

The yearly tradition of heading to Memphis for a one-game stand in March continues again in 2019 with a Wednesday night matchup against the Tigers (Mar. 27), before a big test awaits in the Arkansas Razorbacks.

The Rebels will face their SEC West co-Champions from 2018 in Fayetteville (Mar. 29-Mar. 31) after a three-game series last year in Oxford that drew record crowds to Swayze. Ole Miss returns to Mississippi with an Apr. 2 matchup against North Alabama, but faces a looming threat over the next weekend.

The Florida Gators, who spent much of the 2018 season ranked No. 1 in the country and finished their year just a few games from the College World Series championship game, will head to Oxford April 5-7 in a highly anticipated showdown between the two dominant schools that missed out on a matchup last year.

Ole Miss will again head to Trustmark Park in Pearl, Mississippi, for a pair of games against in-state foes. The Rebels will square off against Southern Miss (Apr. 9) to fulfill the neutral site matchup, and attempt to take back the state’s Governor’s Cup from rival Mississippi State (Apr. 23). The Governor’s Cup game will not count towards the SEC schedule.

The Rebels will see both Mississippi State and Southern Miss later in the season, as the team will head down to Hattiesburg for a Wednesday night game at the Golden Eagles (May 1), before the penultimate series of the year when the Bulldogs of Mississippi State travel up to Oxford for a weekend series May 10-12.

Before the rivalry matchup, however, Ole Miss will welcome the high-powered offense of the Kentucky Wildcats to Oxford for a series (Apr. 12-14), and head to Auburn this year (Apr. 19-21). Texas A&M is also headed back to Oxford for a three-game series Apr. 26-28, while the Rebels will meet the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge this year (May 3-5).

A familiar opponent in Memphis will be the visiting team as they travel to Swayze Field for the second of two matchups Apr. 16, between the series’ of Kentucky and Auburn, while a last-week trip to Arkansas State (May 14) closes out the non-conference schedule.

Tennessee wraps up a challenging slate of SEC opponents this year (May 16-18), in a series that will take place in Knoxville, before the defending champion Rebels hope to defend their throne at the SEC Tournament from May 21-26.

NCAA Regionals this year will take place from May 21-26, the Super Regionals from June 7-9, and the College World Series, held annually in Omaha, Nebraska, from June 15-26.

Ole Miss returns a roster of seven starting position players from a season ago that saw the Rebels lead the SEC at the plate in a slew of categories, including the league’s highest batting average at .300. Freshman All-American Tyler Keenan and one of the SEC’s most revered athletes, Ryan Olenek, are just two Rebels who will look to fill the void in the lineup left by veterans Will Golsan and Nick Fortes, who signed professionally. Coach Bianco and his staff will have to replace an entire weekend rotation that departed in the 2018 MLB Draft, but that should be no problem with a pair of All-Americans on the roster (Parker Caracci, Jordan Fowler; Freshman All-American), and an already top-notch bullpen that saw no significant departures.

Ole Miss baseball season tickets are now on sale at OleMissTix.com or by calling the Ole Miss Athletics Ticket Office at 1-888-REB-TKTS. The renewal deadline for returning season ticket holders is Sept. 30, and new fans who purchase new season tickets will have the option to select seat location in Mid-November at OleMissSeats.com.

TV designations and times will be announced at a later date, and the full slate of game times will be released following that. All home games and SEC road games not already slated for a national broadcast will be streamed on SEC Network + via the ESPN app and WatchESPN.

For all Ole Miss Baseball news and information, visit the official athletics site OleMissSports.com. For more social media updates, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissBSB, on Facebook at Ole Miss Baseball and on Instagram at olemissbsb.

TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
* – in Pearl, Mississippi