Ole Miss and its bats are hot and staying hot in opening win of College World Series
OMAHA, Neb. — People let Ole Miss get hot in the postseason and another opposing pitcher found that out the hard way on Saturday. Going against an unknown pitcher in Auburn’s Joseph Gonzalez the Rebel bats struck early and fast.
Ole Miss touched up Gonzalez for two runs in the top of the first inning and went on for three more in its 5-1 win over the Tigers to start the College World Series 1-0. The Rebels are a perfect 6-0 in the NCAA Tournament, the last team to be unbeaten in postseason play.
Throughout the postseason Ole Miss has outscored its opponents 51-12 and that includes the 22-6 drubbing of Arizona to win the Coral Gables Regional Championship.
On Saturday the usually patient Rebel offense went with the approach jumping on Gonzalez’s stuff early in the counts and it paid off.
“On this field, with the wind gushing in, runs are a premium,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “It’s tough to score and we didn’t face Gonzalez in the regular season but watched from afar how good he is and knew that we were going to have to be very opportunistic and get the big hits. We got several of them.”
Another aspect of Ole Miss’ offense getting hot once again in the back end of the season is the clutch hitting with two outs.
During their seven-game winning streak in mid-may, Ole Miss scored over 20 runs with two outs on the scoreboard. On Saturday, four of the five runs were scored with two outs.
Gonzalez looked dominant in the opening portions of the innings but once he needed one more out to get back in the dugout, Ole Miss went back to what has done so well lately and hung crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
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“It’s just sticking to your approach,” said Kevin Graham. “But that’s something we’ve emphasized since I got here, is getting that big two-out hit. With two outs, even with nobody on, there’s a lot of inning left and just grinding out at-bats and winning pitches. Those two-out runs can be huge. They can be back-breakers.”
Graham hit the lone home run of the game which set a program record for most home runs in a season at 100. The previous record was 98 set in the 1998 season.
With Dylan DeLucia hanging up zeros and keeping Auburn’s bats silent for most of the night it allowed Ole Miss to find its groove against Gonzalez.
Now, Ole Miss is in the driver’s seat of Bracket 2 along with Arkansas. The pair will meet on Monday in the 1-0 game for the right to advance to the championship game of that bracket on Wednesday.
Arkansas put up 17 runs on Stanford in the first game of the day. Ole Miss will need those clutch hits and hot bats to stay hot for 48 more hours.
Related: LISTEN: OleMaha! Rebels clinically take down Auburn in College World Series opener.
