Look who’s atop the Conference USA, SEC West standings

A conference series sweep for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and a series win for Ole Miss over the weekend propelled both teams to the top of their conference standings.

Southern Miss, 13-4 in Conference USA and 28-11 overall, swept Middle Tennessee 9-1 on Friday and 11-2 and 8-0 in a doubleheader on Saturday to jump into the lead of the conference standings.

The Golden Eagles play host to the conference championship baseball tournament at MGM Park in Biloxi on May 23-27.

This week, Southern Miss plays host to South Alabama for a 6 p.m. contest at Pete Taylor Park before traveling to Old Dominion for a C-USA Series in Norfolk.

Ole Miss, meanwhile, dropped a Friday game 3-2 to Georgia before sweeping the doubleheader on Saturday 5-1 and 8-4. The wins were enough for the Rebels to leapfrog Arkansas into the lead of the West Division.

The Rebels jumped up to No. 5 in the Baseball America poll this week, which also ranked Southern Miss No. 15 despite the sweep. USA Today Coaches Poll pushed the Rebels down to No. 7 from last week’s No. 3, while Southern Miss moved down one to No. 16. Division1Baseball.com ranked Ole Miss at No. 6, up from No. 11 last week, while Southern Miss moved up to No. 11 from No. 14 last week.

Ole Miss got some help from in-state rival Mississippi State, who swept Arkansas 6-5 on Friday and 5-3 and 7-5 on Saturday to drop the No. 3 Razorbacks behind the Rebels. The Bulldog sweep was part of the Super Bulldog Weekend in Starkville, which also included the football spring game.

Ole Miss and Mississippi State go head-to-head in Pearl at 6 p.m. Tuesday before the Rebels play host to LSU and Mississippi State takes on Texas A&M at home for a weekend SEC series.

This story was originally published April 23, 2018 at 10:07 AM with the headline "Look who’s atop the Conference USA, SEC West standings."