*Photo from CBS Sports*
The National championship is staying in Mississippi for another year. Jacob Gonzalez homered, Justin Bench scored the game winning run, and the Ole Miss Rebels defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 4-2 on Sunday afternoon in Omaha.
With Ole Miss leading the best of 3 championship series 1-0, they got some late game heroics to win their first ever National Championship. It's the first sweep of a championship series since 2017, and it's just the second ever National Title win by any Ole Miss athletics team, joining the Ole Miss women's golf team in 2021.
Rebels first baseman Tim Elko said that "There is so much to be said for how much we overcame this year, how much we had to fight through, how much we had to pick each other up and never let ourselves get down. The story of our season is going to be told for year and years to come."
After starting the season 7-14 in conference play, Ole Miss won 18 of their final 22 games, sneaking into the College World Series as one of the last 4 teams in. Ole Miss is the 8th National Champion from the SEC since 2009, and also the 3rd straight. Mississippi State won the championship last year, and Vanderbilt won it back in 2019.
The first 5 innings of the game went scoreless, until Gonzalez got Ole Miss on the board, cranking a solo homer to make it 1-0 Rebels. In the top of the 7th, the Sooners took the lead. Jackson Nicklaus was first, hitting the game tying double, and Kendall Pettis drew a bases loaded walk, making it 2-1.
In the 8th inning, Ole Miss exploded. Gonzalez singled in TC McCants, tying the game 2-2 at that point. Bench then scored on a wild pitch, putting the Rebels ahead by a 3-2 score. Gonzalez then scored on another wild pitch, making it a 4-2 game, and eventually a 4-2 win.
Gonzalez said of the late rally that he "Kind of knew we were going to start the scoring in the eighth or ninth. That's how we are. We're going to put the pressure on. We're not going to strike out and sit down. Luckily, I got a hit and I finally got to help the team out this week."
The win for Ole Miss comes in their 6th appearance in Omaha for the College World Series. The last time they advanced to the Finals was back in 1956, where Minnesota ultimately won the championship.
Comments
Post a Comment