Many publications, including the SEC Coaches Poll, predicted the 2025 SEC Baseball season, and Ole Miss was projected to finish in 15th, ahead of only Missouri in most, if not all of them.
This ranking is on the heels of a 27-29 season, also losing in the first round of the SEC Tournament to Mississippi State and missing the College World Series. The main problem for Ole Miss was their pitching, having a combined 5.88 ERA, with two pitchers having below a 4.00 ERA, Austin Simmons and Ryne Rodriguez. Rodriguez had the lowest on the team with a 2.45 ERA with 14.2 innings pitched. Simmons announced earlier that he will be shifting his focus to football, no longer being a part of the Rebels' rotation.
Hopefully, this is changing with Joel Mangrum coming in as the newest pitching coach for the Rebels. Mangrum has spent the last six years in the Cleveland Guardians organization, developing young pitchers as they make their way up the minor leagues. They also have a returning pitcher in Hunter Elliot, who has missed essentially the last two seasons due to Tommy John. He was selected in the 20th round by the Dodgers this past season but decided to return to Ole Miss.
There’s no way around it, this team sucked last year, leading to the aforementioned 15th place prediction. This makes sense based on last years’ results, but, this year is actually looking somewhat promising for Ole Miss. There were three Rebels ranked within D1Baseball’s top 150 pitchers, a far cry from last year. Hunter Elliot was at 26, Riley Maddox at 62, and Mason Nichols at 117.
They also have the number four freshman class, according to D1Baseball, with much-needed holes being filled in the infield with shortstop Owen Paino, who was the sixth highest-rated player coming out of high school. Piano should have an instant impact for the Rebels with a good left-handed bat.
I think the ranking is fair but not necessarily accurate. With some key returning players and some new additions who should add some necessary help on the mound, Ole Miss should be able to be much, much better than they were last season. If not, then Mike Bianco might be gone.