2021 NCAA Baseball Tournament: Ole Miss outlasts Southern Miss, advances to Super Regional in Tucson

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Tim Elko and Doug Nikhazy played a vital role in Ole Miss winning a baseball game.

Yes, we’re going to show you everything he did.

And here’s the solo shot that he hit to Holly Springs.

Then, another Reb wanted to cement his legacy with a statue of his own.

Nikhazy came in and held off a Mustard Buzzard barrage that would just not go away.

Elko, who continues on his ACL REVENGE TOUR across the nation, hit two home runs in Ole Miss’ (44-20) regional-clinching 12-9 win on Monday over Southern Miss, including a grand slam.

Jack Dougherty was good on the mound in the start, but things got a little hairy after he departed as USM fought its way back into the game after being down by approximately a million runs. That sent Mike Bianco to turn to Derek Diamond and Doug Nikhazy, both of whom had already made starts this weekend, out of the bullpen, and the starting duo along with Taylor Broadway were able to close it out for the Rebel win.

Diamond allowed the bases to get loaded with two outs in his outing before giving way to Nikhazy who, despite striking out the first batter he faced on three pitches, didn’t look as sharp as usual. Still, Bianco knew he needed outs, so he went with his most reliable arms to get it done.

Taylor Broadway earned yet another save, by the way. He leads the conference in that category.

Three, that makes it three statues that need to be erected.

Now, Ole Miss is faced with traveling to Tucson, Ariz., to take on the Arizona Wildcats in the super regional round. As we all know, Arizona is most widely known for being on Sandra Bullock’s sweatshirt in the movie “Speed” and that’s pretty much it.

Monday marked the end of games at Swayze Field for 2021, and it was a wild ride. We’ll discuss more about Ole Miss’ impending matchup with Arizona throughout the week, but the bottom line is that, prior to injuries causing a problem, Omaha was the expectation for this Ole Miss team, and now, they sit two wins away from making that a reality.

Arizona will be a stiff test, especially on the road, but the Rebels have shown an ability to play up to their competition this season, so hopefully that continues.

This regional wasn’t what we all hoped necessarily since the Rebs didn’t sweep the action and make this thing easy, but the end result is the same. Ole Miss has won the Oxford Regional, and now Tucson awaits. Crack open a cold one, and let the sweet relief of victory wash over you.