Ole Miss will line-up for the regional final ready for a slugfest

Cue the Paul Rudd clip from Hot Ones.

“Hey, look at us...”

“Who woulda thought?”

“Not me!”

From the last team in the tourney to now sitting in the catbird seat in a regional final, Ole Miss baseball has to dispatch of the Arizona Wildcats at noon CT to advance to the dadgum Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Rebels 2-0 start to the Coral Gables regional was always a possibility though I’ll admit I believed it to be very slim. But to be honest, the final potential win of this regional will be the toughest for the Rebels. Pitching will likely be by committee unless Derek Diamond can pull off his longest outing of the year - at this point, fans should be happy with a quality start from the California native.

Ole Miss broke out the bats against Arizona in game one of this regional and got seven runs across the plate mostly thanks to Peyton Chatagnier. There will have to be more than just timely hitting today, however, as I think both teams will come out aggressive and looking to post a big number on the scoreboard.

Here’s a few tidbits from the Twitter machine about today’s game.

Bring back the camo hats for some magic if it comes to it. Tear off the red jerseys to reveal powder blues. Whatever weird baseball superstition works - the Rebels just need one win.

Nick is still new here and should know better than to tweet historical possibilities like this before an Ole Miss game. Truly an Enemy of the Cup like the CL reporters before him.

And here is the Rebel line-up with a couple changes coming in hot.

Calvin Harris and Garrett Wood are getting a look as TJ McCants and Hayden Leatherwood have struggled this regional. It’s the bottom of the line-up so sure, shake it up.

On the other side of this game, Arizona is coming off an emotional ninth inning rally to beat and eliminate host Miami. Now, the coaches have to figure out who will pitch this crucial fourth game - based on reports it could be RHP Chandler Murphy (1-2, 8.89 ERA) or LHP Eric Orloff (2-2, 5.89 ERA). Either way, the pitching has been pretty spent for the ‘Cats, and the Rebels have to jump on it.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ on a very full day of college baseball and elimination games in nine of the 16 regionals. There would be a deciding game seven if necessary later today if Arizona wins game six of this regional at noon. If you’re at work, now’s about the time to start feigning illness to get home for first pitch.