'Olemaha': Rebels' Remarkable Turnaround Leads to College World Series
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- A freshman left hander from Tupelo, Mississippi, dazzled in his 10th collegiate start in the biggest game of the Ole Miss season on Sunday, and a senior team captain secured the final out.
Hunter Elliott threw 7.1 innings of scoreless ball as the Rebels shut out Southern Miss for the second straight day in the Hattiesburg Super Regional. A team that was in last place in the SEC West in May put together one of the most improbable runs imaginable to get to this point, and Ole Miss has reached the College World Series for the second time in Mike Bianco's tenure in Oxford and the first time since 2014.
Appropriately, the final out of the ninth inning was a pop up to first baseman and team captain Tim Elko who has become one of the biggest stories in college baseball over the last two seasons. Elko's comeback story from a torn ACL a season ago when the Rebels fell one game short of Omaha endeared him to the college baseball community, and his performance over the course of this postseason has solidified that stance in the minds of his admirers.
Despite Elko's leadership on this team, the real turnaround for Ole Miss came thanks in large part to arms like Hunter Elliott's. He and Dylan DeLucia combined along with the Rebel bullpen to hold Southern Miss scoreless over the course of the weekend, and the Rebel bats did the rest. For a team whose pitching was an achilles heel in the early portions of the schedule, it became its biggest strength in the summer months.
Ole Miss is now one of the final eight teams remaining in the college baseball season, and they likely saved their head coach's job in the process.
Let's not gloss this part over: Mike Bianco put together an impressive coaching job in the latter stages of this season when the noise was loud that his days in Oxford might be numbered. The program, though it had reached new heights under his leadership, had grown "stale" in the minds of many in the fan base, thanks in part to a lack of Omaha appearances. That has now been put to bed in the 2022 season.
I wrote during the low points of the SEC schedule that, short of a miraculous turnaround, we could be witnessing the end of Bianco's time in Oxford. The Rebels performed just that.
Tim Elko and Rebel fans have said, "Don't let the Rebs get hot." Get hot they have, and they have a chance to play for a national championship because of it.
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