Last Invited and Last to Leave: Rebels Continuing Their Run in Omaha to the CWS Finals
OMAHA, Neb. – Each year, the last pick in the NFL Draft is known as “Mr. Irrelevant.” Ole Miss was the final pick to play in the NCAA baseball tournament this year and the Rebels are proving to be anything but irrelevant.
Although the last to be invited to the dance, the Rebels are one of only two teams still standing.
By virtue of a 2-0 win over Arkansas Thursday, Ole Miss advances to the final round of play at the College World Series where the Rebels will face Oklahoma in a best-of-three affair to determine the national champion.
The first game is Saturday at 6 p.m., and it will be broadcast by ESPN.
The Rebels (40-23) have had a roller-coaster season to make it to this point. Ole Miss started out hot and was ranked No. 1 in the nation for a brief period. Then the team hit a rough patch but rebounded to finish strong to earn a spot in the Southeastern Conference Tournament before then bowing out after an opening-game loss to Vanderbilt.
With a 14-16 conference record, Ole Miss was on the bubble to be selected to the national tournament.
Ole Miss was given the last spot in the tournament and headed to south Florida for the Coral Gables Regional.
At the regional at the University of Miami, a funny thing happened. Ole Miss got hotter than the sun on South Beach.
The Rebels’ bats erupted as Ole Miss swept the three-game regional by beating Miami and Arizona twice – the last a 22-6 rout of the Wildcats. That sent Ole Miss to Hattiesburg to take on Southern Miss in the Super Regional.
It was there the Ole Miss pitching staff took center stage, shutting out the Eagles in two games to punch the Rebs ticket to Omaha.
“It’s been interesting, a fun ride,” pitcher Dylan DeLucia said Thursday after the win over Arkansas.
“Coach B always says enjoy the ride and that’s what we’ve been doing, what I’ve been doing, just taking every chance I get and running away with it. This team has just played so well the last couple weeks and we’ve turned it on so far.”
Dylan DeLucia
The Rebels have turned it on in Omaha, indeed.
In four games Ole Miss has outscored its opponents 22-9, but that is just a continuation of how the team has played in the tournament. Including the regional and super regional, Ole Miss has outscored opponents 68-20.
Ole Miss rattled off seven consecutive wins in the tournament before dropping a 3-2 heartbreaker to Arkansas Wednesday night to force Thursday’s winner-take-all game.
Coming off the first loss in the tournament – and losing in dramatic fashion – coach Mike Bianco had the task of getting his team to forget that game and concentrate on the one at hand.
“So, to be able to bounce back from a tough one and that was one of the challenges we said this morning. Nobody said it was going to be easy, right? It’s not supposed to be easy and you’ve got to be tough enough to handle it.”
Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco
The Rebels, especially DeLucia, were tough enough. The right-hander threw a complete-game shutout, striking out seven. In Omaha, the junior has thrown 16.2 innings, giving up eight hits, just one run and striking out 17. He has not walked a batter.
The offense has been explosive as well. Calvin Harris is hitting .462 in Omaha, while Kevin Graham is at .412, Justin Bench .368 and Kemp Alderman .357.
Ole Miss will look to keep the postseason rolling heading into the championship series.
Oklahoma, the Big 12 Champion, is 45-22 and has won all three of its games in Omaha.
UP NEXT
The Rebels will face the Sooners in the championship series beginning Saturday at 6:00 p.m. CT. The game will air on ESPN.
(Feature image credit: Josh McCoy, Ole Miss)
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
