'Speechless Moment': Ole Miss' veteran players reflect on playing for a national championship

OMAHA, Neb. — Two years ago Ole Miss baseball was the hottest team in college baseball as winners of 16 straight and looking to potentially have a special season. Then the season was shutdown due to the COVID pandemic and uncertainty settled in for everyone.

Two years later, Ole Miss is filled with veteran players who were on that 2020 squad and chose to stick around to try and capture that dream of getting to Omaha and the College World Series.

The dream was realized on Thursday when Ole Miss defeated Arkansas, 2-0, on the back of Dylan DeLucia’s complete game masterpiece.

Last year the Rebels were a game away from getting to Omaha before Arizona snatched their ticket away. Players like Justin Bench, Tim Elko and others had a choice to make and they all chose to return to Oxford with unfinished business on their minds.

“I mean, we’ve just been focusing one game at a time, but you can’t help but look around and see that you’re playing for the World Series,” said Bench on Friday. “It’s a speechless moment for all of us and this team and (head coach Mike Bianco) and everything.”

Every team is different and every season is different, but there is still that connection between the 2020 through 2022 Ole Miss teams with a common thread.

Omaha was there within reach a year ago and the College World Series was on the lips of those who were watching how the 2020 season was starting for the Rebels.

Ole Miss made it to the College World Series in 2014 but the journey ended in the semifinals. This year and this team started hot at 2-0 in Omaha and got over the hump to the national championship series for the first time in program history.

This version of Ole Miss is probably the most improbable of the three teams to get to this point, but it is also what makes this team the most special to do so.

“I mean, I’ve said it before, our belief, I would say,” Bench said. “Freshman year and junior year we were that one game away. But just keep putting ourselves in that situation to make it to Omaha every year, coming down to that one game. We got to do it this year, and it’s a cool feeling.”

The last 17 hours have been a whirlwind for Ole Miss.

From punching its ticket to the CWS final to then resetting and focusing on the task at hand that starts on Saturday.

Bianco remembers vividly that morning in March 2020 where he had to tell that team their season was over. The hot start was cut short and when Ole Miss would play competitive baseball again was unknown then.

Now, some of those same players are still in a Rebel uniform and two games away from winning the program’s first national championship.

“There’s a lot of guys that are in our dugout now that were in that meeting room on whatever day it was. March 15,” Bianco said. “Where we had to tell them to go home, and a lot of tears, a very emotional day for us and for the rest of the country and the world, right? So that was a tough day. I remember that. It’ll always be cemented in my brain.

“But as far as the players and how it affects, relates to this point, I think it’s really cool, the story of the Bench and Elko and Graham and others that had opportunities last year after that season, a great season ended up one game short of being there to come back for one more ride and one more chance at it. How cool is that to be here and to still be here with two teams remaining.”

Related: Talk of Champions Extra: Ole Miss hitting coach Mike Clement, live from Omaha, two wins from a title