The University of Mississippi Athletics
Diamond Rebs Recruiting Class Ranked 18th Nationally
10/15/2010 | Baseball
Oct. 15, 2010
OXFORD, Miss. - Baseball America has tabbed the Ole Miss recruiting class for the 2010 season as the 18th-ranked class in the nation, the publication announced on Friday with the release of its annual rankings.
It's the second top 25 ranking for the Rebels' recruiting class who were tabbed as the 21st-ranked recruiting class in the nation when Collegiate Baseball released its rankings recently.
Ole Miss is one of eight teams from the Southeastern Conference ranked in the preseason by Baseball America, more than any other conference heading into the 2011 season. Baseball America has been ranking collegiate recruiting classes for the past 11 seasons.
The Rebels welcome 20 newcomers to campus as a part of the 2010 recruiting class, including six players who were drafted in the 2010 MLB Amateur Draft but chose to pass on a professional career in favor of competing for the Red and Blue in the upcoming season.
Returning to the diamond for the Rebels are 18 players from a squad that advanced to the program's eighth consecutive NCAA Regional and ninth in the last decade. Ole Miss went 39-24 last season and posted a 16-14 record in Southeastern Conference play. No other team has posted more wins in conference play than the Rebels over the last eight seasons with 137 SEC wins under their belt.
With the appearance in the NCAA Regional at the University of Virginia, the Rebels are one of only 12 teams in the nation to have advanced to an NCAA Regional each of the last eight seasons. Ole Miss is also the only SEC team to have hosted an NCAA Regional five of the last seven years and advanced to an NCAA Super Regional four of the last six years.
Ole Miss has also ranked in the top three nationally in attendance the last two seasons and ranked in the top five for four consecutive years.
The Rebels open the 2011 campaign on Friday, Feb. 22, with a three-game series against Wright State.