Ten days ago, the Missouri Tigers had ended Vanderbilt's 13-game winning streak and stood 34-17-1, a game over .500 in the SEC and probably one win away from locking up an NCAA Tournament bid. Five losses later, Mizzou's postseason fate is very much up in the air.

Mizzou lost to Ole Miss 2-1 in the SEC Tournament opener for both teams in Hoover, Ala. on Tuesday afternoon.

"We would be very, very difficult in a regional," head coach Steve Bieser said after the loss. "I feel like our resume is really, really solid."

Missouri struck first on Tuesday, getting a run on back-to-back doubles by Thomas Broyles and Austin James in the 2nd inning. The score stayed 1-0 until the bottom of the 5th when Jacob Cantlebury replaced starter Konnor Ash on the mound. Jacob Adams doubled to lead off the 5th and scored on a double from Thomas Dillard. Three batters later, Cole Zabowski singled up the middle to plate Dillard.

Neither team scored in the final four innings. Mizzou did get the tying run to second base in the bottom of the 9th on a hit by pitch and a passed ball, but Broyles struck out looking to end it.

The loss dropped Mizzou to 34-22-1 on the season, including 13-17-1 in SEC play. Before the tournament, D1Baseball.com's NCAA projections had Mizzou as a three seed and one of the last five teams in the field. Now, the Tigers can only wait and hope they did enough in the season's first three months that the last two weeks didn't send them home for the season.

"Obviously we wanted to win today and I think that just seals it," Bieser said. "But we've played ten conference series and we've only lost four of those series in conference play. I like our resume and I like this team."

Bieser's counterpart on Tuesday agreed with him.

"That Missouri team can win a regional, without a doubt," Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said. "They would be one of the scariest teams in a regional because of their arms."

Bianco lobbied for 11 teams to make it from the SEC.

"For some reason, our sport has not figured it out," he said. "You look at softball they take all 13. Why? Because they deserve it. You look at basketball, it's cut and dried. They take the best teams...I think at the end of the day, the committee, those ten people, their job is to take the best teams.

"What's really a crime is if they're good enough but they're not taken because somebody didn't want to take 11 teams. That's a shame and that's what's wrong with our game. Not just in selection, but a lot of different things with our game where people think that's okay to take a team from a regional just because we don't want to take another team from a league. That's not okay."

The field will be announced next Monday at 11 a.m. on ESPNU. Between now and then, all Missouri can do is wait.