Entering the final regular season series, most experts believe LSU baseball's path to get back to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large will require it to pick up at minimum three more wins.

But that mark includes what the Tigers (33-20, 10-17 SEC) could also accomplish in the SEC Tournament as well. So LSU shouldn't necessarily have to sweep Ole Miss (27-25, 11-16 SEC), who is also staunchly located on the NCAA Tournament bubble itself coming into the final regular season weekend. However, Jay Johnson's club would certainly prefer it to remove as much doubt as possible before the conference tournament.

The Tigers and Rebels square off for an important three-game set starting Thursday night (6 p.m., SEC Network), continuing Friday (6:30 p.m., SEC Network+) and wrapping up Saturday (1 p.m., SEC Network+) at Alex Box Stadium.

At it stands, the SEC Tournament isn't even a foregone conclusion for LSU, who has mightily struggled since the start of SEC play this season. The Tigers need one more win or a Missouri loss to officially secure a seed in Hoover for next week.

REQUIRED READING LSU baseball loses two 1-run games, drops series at Alabama

If the Ole Miss series went to plan for the Tigers, they could play their way as high as the No. 8 seed, but it would need to sweep the Rebels, plus Alabama would need to be swept by Auburn, Florida swept by Georgia and Vanderbilt swept by Kentucky.

Ole Miss is playing good baseball coming into the series at LSU. The Rebels took the series over No. 2 Texas A&M last weekend and are trying to mount their own late-season run.

LSU baseball hosts Ole Miss for a pivotal SEC series starting Thursday night at 6 p.m. on SEC Network

LSU DROPS SERIES AT ALABAMA LSU baseball loses two 1-run games, drops series at Alabama

LSU BASEBALL NCAA TOURNAMENT PROJECTIONS Where does LSU baseball stand in NCAA Tournament projections after Texas A&M series win?

Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball live score updates vs Ole Miss