Ole Miss beats Oklahoma for CWS title
Mississippi stormed back with three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and held on for a 4-2 win over Oklahoma to win its first College World Series title Sunday afternoon in Omaha, Nebraska.
Ole Miss (50-23), which was one of the last four teams invited to the NCAA baseball tournament, enjoyed a raucous celebration on the field after right-hander Brandon Johnson struck out Oklahoma’s Sebastian Orduno to end the game. The Rebels piled on top of Johnson near the mound after sweeping the Sooners with back-to-back victories in the best-of-three series.
The Rebels rallied in wild fashion, which mirrored their unexpected climb to a championship, becoming the first team to win a CWS championship game after trailing in the eight inning or later since 2000 when LSU rallied past against Stanford.
“As you can imagine, so much goes into it and we’ve had so many great teams over the years. So many times, we came short of this place and it’s been really disappointing,” Rebels manager Mike Bianco told ESPN afterward. “But this is — for 22 years, a lot of guys who wore the uniform, they own a part of this.
“But the biggest part goes to these guys. You’ve talked about our story all week, and I’ve never seen a group of kids that were more resilient, more relentless and of course, (I’m) super, super proud.”
Ole Miss trailed 2-1 entering the eighth when Jacob Gonzalez ripped a single to right field to even the score.
Mississippi then scored back-to-back runs on wild pitches by Sooners righthander Trevin Michael. Justin Bench raced home on the first wild pitch to make it 3-2, and Gonzalez sprinted home two batters later to give Ole Miss a tworun lead.