Veteran Ole Miss roster played a major role in salvaging season
HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Lets face it, a little over a month ago things looked bleak and maybe a little beyond bleak for the Ole Miss baseball team as the postseason felt like a pipe dream. But, a veteran roster made sure the team stayed the course and are now two wins away from the College World Series.
Prior to the Missouri series Ole Miss was sitting tied with the Tigers for the worst record in the SEC at 7-14. Flash forward two straight sweeps and a win over Texas A&M and the Rebels earned their way into the SEC Tournament.
A loss against Vanderbilt in the opening round at Hoover was not ideal but Ole Miss had done just enough to eke into the NCAA Baseball Tournament for a fourth straight season. Then a dominating performance in the Coral Gables Regional where Ole Miss went a perfect 3-0 punched their ticket to this weekend and the Hattiesburg Super Regional.
Since dropping their series against Arkansas in late April, Ole Miss has won 11 of their last 14 games and that include the postseason.
What led to this run by Ole Miss? Of course the play on the field improved at the plate and on the mound but there was constant in the locker room of veteran players and leaders that helped keep the blinders on.
Tim Elko was at the top of that list of leaders, who called a player’s only meeting after dropping the home series against Mississippi State.
“I don’t think we’re hear today without, certainly Tim Elko a team captain, but an older group,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “The leadership shouldn’t just fall on one guy and although Tim’s a tremendous leader, but just an older team. The phrased that I’ve used the last week or so with them is just handle it and they have just handled it.
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“We were at a point that I think at 7-14 (in SEC play), 22-17 overall and sometimes teams will go in different directions and one of them’s not good. It’s a dark place and difficult to get out of. This team chose to just keep playing. I think a lot of that has to do with leadership and having an older group of guys.”
Ole Miss is not the only team in college baseball with an older team in recent seasons, but they have older players who have been exactly where they are now.
One year ago essentially this exact Ole Miss team, give or take a few players, was in a Super Regional and two wins away from getting the program back to Omaha.
Things did not go the Rebels way but now they are once again two wins from punching their ticket for the first time since 2014.
Older players like Elko and catcher Hayden Dunhurst know what the moments are like, what the pressures are like. Something that could help guide some new faces that will find themselves in those moments on the mound and at the plate.
“The big thing going into the postseason this past weekend was every one was 0-0. Nobody had a win-loss record,” Dunhurst said. “Whoever wins stays and whoever loses goes home. It’s just stay hot, get hot and keep it rolling.”
