Mike Bianco gives take on his non-stars playing big in the CWS title run

Ole Miss baseball lifted the national championship trophy after entering the postseason on the bubble. The work head coach Mike Bianco and his staff did to turn the season around has received attention but he defers the credit to a group stars and non-stars who delivered on the field.

During the postgame press conference, Mike Bianco explained the formula it takes to win it all, from the star players to the non-stars who stepped up in unexpected moments.

“I’ve always believed tournament play is so tough, and to win at the end of the season, your stars have to show up,” said Bianco. “They’ve got to perform on a stage, and certainly our guys have. But to win and to move on, you need the guys that maybe nobody was expecting. On media day they weren’t the guys that were in all the photo shoots and all of that.

“Again, they don’t have to be the MVP of the tournament. Sometimes they are, but you’ve got to have different pieces or different ones on different nights. Calvin Harris was a superstar here in Omaha. Gaddis was terrific, a guy that hadn’t started in a while and gives us that great start against Arkansas, gives us an opportunity, and then comes in today in a tough situation with the bases loaded — we had already walked in, and he gets to a three-ball count and gets out of it. And so many other guys. That’s how you get here, because it takes all of them. You’ve got to lean on your stars, but man, you need the other parts to come through for you.”

Mike Bianco on pitching staff

Mike Bianco also addressed how a mature pitching staff grew up in front of his eyes and served as the catalyst for a national championship run after a rough conference slate.

“Yeah, and they deserve a lot of credit,” said Bianco. “I think when you look back statistically, it’s a team game, and we have a great offense, but we are not in Omaha, and we’re certainly not winning a national championship if we don’t pitch it like we have. The guys have been terrific.

“I think Brandon (Johnson) was right; once (Dylan) DeLucia became the ace that he did, you’re a different team. When you don’t have an ace, it’s hard to win, and especially in our league. Friday nights are a bear in the SEC, and if you don’t have a guy that can match up with the other team’s ace, you have no shot. I think once that happened, and then Hunter (Elliott) came along and kind of filled in that 2 slot, we had a pretty good one-two punch similar to last year.”