Ole Miss baseball spent the 2024 regular season fighting to stay in striking distance of the SEC's lower-middle tier and, by extension, an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

That they did so until the season's final series after starting 3-9 in conference play is, in some ways, admirable. Eventually, though, staying in the fight isn't sufficient. You have to be good enough to land a punch.

Against LSU in a three-game series, the Rebels weren't. Not even close.

Ole Miss couldn't touch LSU starter Gage Jump in a 5-1 loss Thursday. The Rebels (27-28, 11-19 SEC) played poor defense and wasted late-inning scoring opportunities in a 4-2 defeat Friday to the Tigers (36-20, 13-17). A 9-3 thumping on Saturday was over by the fourth inning.

"Tough, tough weekend," Rebels coach Mike Bianco said. "Didn't swing it well all weekend."

Last week, Ole Miss took two out of three from a top-five Texas A&M team to earn the right to play a four-game referendum on their season, starting with a game against Southern Miss on Tuesday in Hattiesburg. There, the Rebels threw away a four-run lead. Against the Tigers, Ole Miss never once led in 27 innings of baseball.

The Rebels' metrics say they remain on the NCAA Tournament bubble – they ranked 32nd in the RPI going into the final day of the regular season. But including this Ole Miss team as an at-large would require the committee to take unprecedented steps. Since the tournament moved to 64 teams, no 11-win SEC team has received an invitation. And teams are required to be above .500 to receive an at-large bid.

UPDATES: Ole Miss baseball score updates vs LSU: Rebels visit Tigers in crucial SEC series

The 11-win season is the second-worst outcome in Bianco's 24 years leading the program, trumped only by last season, when Ole Miss went 6-24.

No team in the conference has won fewer SEC games over the last two years.

Bianco often says that you don't win without playing well in the SEC, the best baseball conference in the country. Too often, the Rebels haven't played well.

As of Friday, the Rebels ranked second-to-last in the conference in batting average, slugging percentage and runs scored. Their team ERA ranked second-to-last, too. No team in the conference had walked more batters. The Rebels led the SEC in errors by a margin of 15.

Thirty conference games is a relatively short sample size in a game like baseball. It can lead to outcomes that don't necessarily reflect the ingredients. But, given the ugly sight those numbers present, Ole Miss is going home with the cake it ordered ‒ underbaked, poorly flavored and unenjoyable.

Injuries have hurt the Rebels this season, it must be said. Two weekend starters in Xavier Rivas and Hunter Elliott saw their seasons end before they began. Star outfielder Ethan Lege hasn't played in nearly three weeks due to a fractured thumb.

Still, it would be difficult to find a conference series this year where the Rebels didn't seem outgunned – particularly on the mound. LSU, holding a 10-17 SEC record entering this weekend after winning the national title last season, could turn to a quality of arm that Ole Miss could not. Its starters, Luke Holman and Gage Jump, overwhelmed the Rebels, who fared little better when the Tigers opted for a bullpen day on Saturday.

There's still a tournament to be played next week in Hoover, Alabama, where Ole Miss will take on Mississippi State on Tuesday (8 p.m., SEC Network). But now, the SEC tournament gives the Rebels a chance to make a miracle run, not bolster a resume.

"It's a ton of disappointment, just the way the week went," Ole Miss outfielder Ethan Groff said. "But we gotta flush it. We gotta try and win the first pitch on Tuesday. We gotta try and find ourselves there."

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Unpacking another ugly SEC campaign for Ole Miss baseball