Mike Bianco reveals keys to success for Ole Miss pitching staff in postseason

Saturday in their first game of the College World Series, the Ole Miss pitching staff continued to prevail. Dylan DeLucia got the start and set the tone through the first 7.2 innings as the Rebels claimed a 5-1 victory against SEC foe Auburn.

DeLucia allowed just four hits in his time while striking out 10, and also didn’t give up a run until the seventh inning. It marked the first time Ole Miss had surrendered a run since Regional play after pitching back-to-back shutouts against Southern Miss is the Super Regional.

After the win Saturday, Rebels coach Mike Bianco tried to explain what’s been going right on defense.

“I don’t know what the biggest factor,” he said. “If you watch Dylan and you watch, I would probably have to say just being ahead in the count. The guys are pitching with tremendous confidence. I thought that was Dylan today. And Kemp, I think, said it the best, you can look at that slider and the slider can be really nasty. He can throw a really good change-up — not many lefties in the lineup, so I think we threw maybe one or two changeups today.

“But the fastball can be so dominant. You look at the board, it’s 90 to 93. He’ll bump it 94, 95. But there’s a lot of low 90s, which is good, but it’s not, I think, impressive when you look at the scoreboard like you see some other guys that are throwing the ball mid to upper 90s. But he commands it. It’s got good run on it. And it makes them very uncomfortable. And he can throw it on both sides of the plate. When he’s ahead in the count like that, you can see that they they’re not able to barrel up the fastball. And when you don’t do that, then it’s tough to get to the breaking ball.”

After DeLucia was taken out with two outs in the eighth, Josh Mallitz entered to finish things off. He kept up the pace to strike out three batters over the final four outs. Last week in Game 2 the Super Regional against Souther Miss, Mallitz also pitched the final 1.2 innings to earn the save.

Bianco doesn’t typically have Mallitz in the closing spot, but given the Rebels were leading in both game he felt comfortable sending him out for the final inning and a half.

“Mallitz, of course, at the end has been, is as good as anybody that we run out there,” the coach said. “And it’s a shame we’ve had a couple, because of the spread, we haven’t run Johnson out there at the end. And part of that is because of the lead. I get uncomfortable bringing your closer in with a five-run lead or four-run lead. But they’ve been good and I guess the answer is a lot of strikes.”

With the win against Auburn, the Rebels now advance to face another familiar foe from the SEC in Arkansas. That game is set to begin at 7 p.m. ET Monday and will be televised on ESPN. Ole Miss will hope its pitching staff can once again come through with a big defensive performance as it looks to inch closer to the championship series.