Ole Miss skipper Mike Bianco
The last time Ole Miss baseball played in Nebraska, it won a National Championship.
That scene was in Omaha in 2022 where the Rebels defeated Oklahoma to claim the College World Series.
There are two principals still around from the glory time in Omaha, Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco and ace pitcher Hunter Elliott.
“Yeah, it’s now, just me and him,” Bianco said of his senior pitcher from Tupelo. Elliott was the No. 2 pitcher on the 2022 title team. On Friday at 8 p.m., Elliott will be on the bump for the Rebels (36-21) against No. 3 Lincoln Regional seed Arizona State of the Big 12 Conference.
Bianco said its too early to know a lot about Arizona State, who had a No. 41 RPI in the last rankings released Monday.
“Certainly, two of the best players in the nation in (Cole) Carlon and (Landon) Hairston. They have a really good offense. It’s like 108 home runs. We haven’t faced many that have hit more home runs than we have,” Bianco said. “This will be a big challenge for us.”
The winner of Friday’s late game will face the afternoon winner between the host Nebraska Cornhuskers and South Dakota State. South Dakota State has one of the weakest records in the 64-team field at 24-31.
After unexpected early exit from last week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament with a stunning 10-8 loss to No. 16 seed Missouri, Bianco said the Rebels wanted to refocus.
“We were able to do some intra-squad games Wednesday and Sunday, and so, I felt like we had a good week. We got some good work in,” Bianco said.
It was the first time in 11 days Ole Miss has not had a game or an SEC series to worry about.Â
“All our pitchers, except for the (weekend) starters and (Hudson) Calhoun faced live batters,” Bianco said.
Nebraska will present something new with the historic Hawks Field at Haymarket Park. Nebraska’s Will Bolt bragged about it on an interview ESPN2.
“The grass surface is one of the best in the nation,” Bolt said.
Of course, Ole Miss has played in some tough parks this season at Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida. Alabama and Florida are national seeds.
“It shows how tough are league is,” Bianco said of the league travels and 11 teams making the field, including Kentucky.
There will remain, however, one key thing for the Rebels.
“At the end of the day, you have to play well,” Bianco said. “If you don’t play well, you lose. And if you here, the season is over.”
