'Loud and rowdy': Ole Miss shifts its focus to Arkansas after opening win in Omaha
OMAHA, Neb. — There was not much time for Ole Miss to soak in its first opening game win at the College World series in 66 years after taking down Auburn on Saturday. Instead, the team returned to the practice field on Sunday and already turned the page.
The reason for doing so is Ole Miss (38-22) has yet another SEC obstacle in their path to the championship series next weekend in Arkansas (44-19). The odds were high the Rebels were not done with the inter-conference matchups with three of the four teams in Bracket 2 being from the SEC.
Arkansas made sure that was going to be the case with its 17-2 stomping of No. 2 National Seed Stanford in the first game of the day on Saturday. Now, the stage is set for the Rebels and Razorbacks to compete for the right to get the coveted 2-0 start in Omaha.
Monday night’s game is heavily anticipated as it felt on Saturday the two teams with the largest fan representation was Ole Miss and Arkansas. The Rebel fans looked to have a good 80-20 ratio to Auburn fans on Saturday.
“What I remember most is just their fan base,” said Peyton Chatagnier when looking back at the series in Fayetteville earlier this year. “Their fan base is really (good). They get loud, they get rowdy and makes the atmosphere really fun. I think our fan base is going to be at this game just as much as theirs. So I think it’s going to be a really loud and rowdy, intense, fun game.”
When Ole Miss went to Baum-Walker Stadium in April it was the series that felt like the beginning of the turning point in the season.
Arkansas took the series winning the final two games but one was a walk-off and the other was a game where a pitch here or there and a timely hit could have resulted in a series win for the Rebels.
Instead Ole Miss suffered its fourth straight SEC series loss but after it started a seven-game win streak that essentially saved its season.
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Now, as with Auburn, the Rebels see Arkansas for a fourth time this season and also bring back the revenge tour factor as the Razorbacks sent Ole Miss home in the 2019 Super Regional.
“We played well at Arkansas. Just kind of in that niche where not well enough,” said head coach Mike Bianco. “That was a third weekend in a row where we won on Friday or the opening game of the series and weren’t able to get one of the next two. But they were really close games like the two previous weekends.”
Arkansas has not announced its starting pitcher yet but Ole Miss will avoid seeing Connor Noland who worked a masterful outing against Stanford on Sunday.
Ole Miss and Arkansas meet in the winner’s game of Bracket 2 at 6 p.m. CT on Monday. The game will air on ESPN.
Related: Dylan DeLucia is built different, and other stray Ole Miss observations from Omaha
