Good morning, sports fans. Sometimes teams just have to take their tans and free vacation, and go home.

This weekend, Eastern’s baseball team will travel to Ole Miss to take on one of the better teams in the nation.

The Rebels are 6-1 as of Tuesday and are ranked in all four national polls. In one, they rank as high as No. 10.

Eastern is struggling to gain respect in their own conference. But I don’t want to be a hypocrite, so I will say this: Eastern does have a good squad this season, but just not as good as Ole Miss. Not many schools do.

Would I be surprised if Eastern got swept this weekend? No. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if they were able to steal one either. To tell the truth, I just don’t see it happening.

The only thing this weekend will be good for is that the baseball team can go out and see some live action.

They’ll also get away from this cold weather. Other than that, it looks like it is going to be a tough weekend.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope the Panthers go down there and really take it to them this weekend, but they will be lucky to stay within five runs in any of the games.

So, I guess the real issue here is, why? Why would Eastern want to take on a national powerhouse so early in the season, when the only thing that could happen is the Rebels taking them behind the woodshed?

Some say it’s so they can get the experience. Experience of what? Seeing the scoreboard lit up?

I can’t imagine late in the season, come tournament time, that any of the players will say, “Man, are we lucky we got lit up against Ole Miss. That really helped us this season.”

There are plenty of other schools down south that are not quite as good as Ole Miss that Eastern could have went to play, and beaten pretty soundly. Why not play those schools, instead of one that is clearly better than your team?

Now, I know some of you might think I’m being harsh on the baseball team, but I’m not. I’m being truthful. I know it, the team knows it and Ole Miss knows it.

Like I said, I hope they go down there and take two of three, prove me wrong and laugh in my face when they see me.

Will that happen? Probably not. Will they bounce back and still have a good season? Definitely.