Sunday was nearly a picture-perfect day at the Hoover Met as the Ole Miss Rebels and Vanderbilt Commodores met in the 2025 SEC Tournament Championship game. With the hosting already sealed, the Rebels and Commodores would play for the SEC Tournament trophy and a year’s bragging rights.

Coming into the game with Vanderbilt, Ole Miss’s pitching was the biggest question mark because the usual Sunday starter, Mason Nichols, was sidelined this week for rest in the regional; Coach Bianco decided to go with Walker Hooks with the Championship on the line. Vanderbilt went with Austin Nye. Nye would see his day end after 4.2 innings of solid pitching, giving up two hits and one hit while striking out five Ole Miss hitters. Coach Bianco went to the bullpen in the top half of the 5th inning after Walker Hooks delivered the Rebels by giving up three hits and two runs while striking out three Vanderbilt batters.

Vanderbilt would strike first in the bottom of the second inning with a two-run home run from Brodie Johnston to take a 2-0 lead over Ole Miss. Ole Miss would respond off the bat of Mitchell Sanford with a base hit to score one run to bring the Rebels within one at 2-1 midway through the 5th inning. Vanderbilt, as Vanderbilt always does, responded in the bottom of the 5th inning with a solo shot from Jacob Humphrey to extend the Vanderbilt lead to 3-1 over the Rebels.

Ole Miss couldn’t get the bats going despite the pitching only giving up three runs; that’s baseball. However, Ole Miss did what they had to do this weekend, and now the Rebels will host an Oxford Regional next weekend at Swayze Field.

With hosting already set in stone for the Rebels and Commodores, Sunday was about winning a championship and providing a good baseball game as the final Southeastern Conference game of the season. Most of the conference starts its postseason journey next weekend in Regionals before reaching the College World Series.

Ole Miss and Vanderbilt will officially find out if they’re hosting next weekend on Sunday night via social media around 7:30 central. The whole field will be announced on Monday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2.

Photo credits- Ole Miss/ SEC on X