Offensive explosion puts Ole Miss on brink of National Championship

The Ole Miss Rebels are one win away from a national championship after a late offensive surge downed the Oklahoma Sooners, 10-3.

Rebel sophomore Jack Dougherty pitched five perfect innings while his counterparts built a 4-0 lead. This was truly an enormous difference maker in this game as it was only Dougherty’s fourth start on the season.

Oklahoma tightened the game to 4-2, but then suddenly head coach Mike Bianco said, “hey, look guys, howsa bout we just start slapping dingers all over Omaha like we own the damn place?!”

TJ McCants hits a two run dinger to stretch the Rebel lead to 6-2. Then Calvin Harris decides he’s ready for a jog around the bases and goes deep, and it’s suddenly 7-2. As Justin Bench strode to the plate, he probably remembered one of the safest leads in baseball is six runs, and he slammed a homer as well. Back to back to back home runs for an 8-2 lead that would stand as Mason Nichols and Josh Mallitz shut the door on Oklahoma to end the game.

Ole Miss and Oklahoma play on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb., and the Sooner are in a must-win situation while Ole Miss sends Hunter Elliott to the mound with a chance to win a title.

There are not enough words right now to state how universally huge this win was tonight. The first College World Series final win for Ole Miss for starters but also for a team who many fans counted out two months ago to be in this position - well... that’s baseball.