Mississippi completes unlikely run to College World Series title
OMAHA, Neb. — The last team to get into the NCAA baseball tournament was the last team standing.
Mississippi scored twice on wild pitches in a threerun eighth inning and the Rebels won their first national baseball title, sweeping Oklahoma in the College World Series finals with a 4-2 victory Sunday.
The Rebels ( 42- 23) became the eighth national champion since 2009 to come out of the Southeastern Conference and the third straight. The trophy also will stay in the Magnolia State — Mississippi State won last year.
“There is so much to be said for how much we overcame this year, how much we had to fight through, how much we had to pick each other up and never let ourselves get down,” team captain Tim Elko said. “The story of our season is going to be told for year and years to come.”
Mississippi benefited from a runner-interference call that took a run away from Oklahoma (45-24) in the sixth inning. The Rebels also overcame a spectacular pitching performance by Cade Horton, who set a CWS finals record with 13 strikeouts.
Brandon Johnson struck out the side in a 1-2-3 ninth inning to set off a celebration on the field and in the stands where the majority of the 25,972 were Rebels fans dressed in Mississippi powder blue. Catcher Hayden Dunhurst ran to the mound to embrace and then tackle Johnson after Sebastian Orduno swung and missed on the final pitch.
It was an improbable journey for the Rebels and 22ndyear coach Mike Bianco, who was under fire when his team sat at 22-17 overall and 7-14 in SEC play on May 1.
“I think they’ve showed a lot of people that you can fall down, you can stumble and you can fail, but that doesn’t mean you’re a failure,” Bianco said. “If you continue to work hard, you continue to push and you continue to believe, you can accomplish anything. That’s not some poster or some tweet to motivate you. We’ve all heard that. These guys have lived that this season.”
Mississippi beat out North Carolina State for the final at-large bid and had to go on the road for regionals and super regionals. The Rebels finished the season on a 20-6 run, including 10-1 in the national tournament.