Mississippi State and Southern Miss have climbed in the polls after another successful week of baseball.
A midweek loss to the Golden Eagles did not hurt the Bulldogs’ standing in the latest D1Baseball rankings. Instead, Brian O’Connor’s club rose one spot to No. 3 – as LSU fell from its spot at No. 2 after losing two of three during its weekend series to Sacramento State. Mississippi State (14-2), on the other hand, avenged its Tuesday night defeat in dominant fashion in a three-game stint against Lipscomb. The Bulldogs outscored the Bison a whopping 43-7 across three games.
Mississippi State can continue to prove itself as one of the nation’s top teams with a conference series opener at No. 5 Arkansas this weekend. The Bulldogs will play a midweek contest versus Tulane in Biloxi before that.
Down in Hattiesburg, a Wednesday loss to Nicholls following Tuesday’s top-five win gave Southern Miss more of an incentive to avoid overlooking North Alabama over the weekend. The Golden Eagles (14-2) handled business, outscoring the Lions 24-7 in the series, allowing them to rise to No. 7 in the rankings.
Southern Miss has a busy week ahead with an in-state matchup against Ole Miss on Tuesday and an opening Sun Belt series at Arkansas State over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss (15-2) bounced back from a rough showing in the Bruce Bolt Classic by winning all five of its games last week. But it was not enough to move them back into the rankings. Mike Bianco’s club will have a golden opportunity to make its case this week with Tuesday’s battle against the Golden Eagles and an opening SEC series at No. 2 Texas on the docket.
The full D1Baseball Top 25 can be found below:
- UCLA
- Texas
- Mississippi State
- Georgia Tech
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Southern Miss
- Georgia
- Oklahoma
- NC State
- Clemson
- Wake Forest
- LSU
- Virginia
- North Carolina
- Coastal Carolina
- TCU
- Oregon State
- Tennessee
- Florida State
- Kentucky
- Texas A&M
- Florida
- UTSA
- USC