OXFORD - Ole Miss baseball fans speak with great reverence the words "regional host."

The phrase creates mental pictures of big crowds at old Swayze Field, people sitting on the hill or standing where they could at a facility that hadn't the permanent seats to accommodate the event.

Only once in four seasons - a string that ended last year - did Ole Miss fail to advance from an Oxford Regional.

The new Swayze Field, officially celebrated this weekend, has 6,000 chairback seats and room for many more folks in the outfield sections.

The weekend had quite the regional feel about it as fans streamed in to enjoy the weather and the ball, 26,929 fans in all, a school record for an SEC regular season series.

The weekend could have lasting implications for the baseball team and not just the baseball stadium.

The Rebels (32-12, 13-8 SEC) are among five teams within a game of the top spot in the SEC, and if they do not spontaneously combust they should be in good position to host a regional.

Two wins against Georgia jumped the RPI to 16, which is a good place to be considering there are 16 host sites awarded.

Arkansas, Georgia and Florida are 12, 13 and 14 in simulated RPI numbers, and LSU is 17.

Ole Miss has beaten Georgia and Florida head-to-head and has yet to play Arkansas.

Plenty up for grabs

With nine games remaining, six are against Auburn and Mississippi State, teams that have struggled to pitch successfully against SEC competition.

Regional host and perhaps a national seed are still there for the taking if the Rebels can close with a little more fire than they did last year.

Ole Miss won just one SEC series in the back half of 2008 and needed a super-human effort from Scott Bittle on the final day of the regular season to qualify for the SEC tournament and keep the season alive.

This team looks different right now, not infallible, but confident.

While the stadium shines and the team shows promise, the modern era of Ole Miss baseball has the constant drumbeat of Omaha. For all that Mike Bianco's teams have accomplished in the national picture, a College World Series berth is still on the to-do list.

A program that continues to put itself in position will get there one day, and it will likely be with a team that is not dominant but very good, flying a bit under the radar.

And the road will likely begin with an Oxford Regional.

Parrish Alford (parrish.alford@ djournal.com) covers Ole Miss for the Daily Journal. He blogs about the Rebels at NEMS360.com.