DeLucia paints masterpiece in enormous CWS debut

The Ole Miss Rebels took on the No. 14 national seed Auburn Tigers Saturday night and wanted no part of an elimination game on Monday.

The party started early for the Rebs as they scored two on two outs in the top of the first off Auburn pitcher Joseph Gonzalez.

Dylan DeLucia responded with a massive shut down inning, not giving Auburn a chance to regain any early momentum. In fact, Loosh responded in a huge way, shoving 4 ²⁄₃ perfect innings against the Tigers before finally surrendering the first base runner of the game for Auburn.

Kevin Graham homered in the third inning while Chatagnier and McCants added on two more runs in the sixth, extending the cushion for DeLucia to 5 runs. Dylan ran into a little bit of trouble in the 7th. After surrendering a leadoff double, Auburn scored their first run and had two on with no outs.

It was at this moment where Ole Miss fans just knew it was time for DeLucia to depart to his standing ovation and go to the bullpen. Dylan did depart to a standing ovation but it was not in this inning. Coach Bianco opted to ride with his ace and it paid off as he got out of the jam only surrendering the one run.

DeLucia returned for the eighth inning only to be removed after an error by Jacob Gonzalez and 112 pitches. Mallitz entered for the final out of the 8th only for Dunhurst to back pick the runner at first.

After a drama free ninth inning, the Rebels won their opening game in the College World Series for the first time since 1956. Ole Miss will face another SEC West rival in Arkansas Monday night at 7:00 ET.