Mississippi stormed back with three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and held on for a 4-2 win over Oklahoma to win its first College World Series in school history on Sunday afternoon in Omaha, Neb.
Ole Miss (50-23), which was one of the last four teams invited to the NCAA baseball tournament, enjoyed a raucous celebration on the field after right-hander Brandon Johnson struck out Oklahoma’s Sebastian Orduno to end the game. The Rebels piled on top of Johnson near the mound after sweeping the Sooners with back-to-back victories in the best-of-three series.
The Rebels rallied in wild fashion, which mirrored their unexpected climb to a championship, becoming the first team to win a CWS championship game after trailing in the eight inning or later since 2000 when LSU rallied past against Stanford.
“As you can imagine, so much goes into it and we’ve had so many great teams over the years. So many times, we came short of this place and it’s been really disappointing,” Rebels manager Mike Bianco told ESPN afterward. “But this is — for 22 years, a lot of guys who wore the uniform, they own a part of this.
“But the biggest part goes to these guys. You’ve talked about our story all week, and I’ve never seen a group of kids that were more resilient, more relentless and of course, (I’m) super, super proud.”
Ole Miss trailed 2-1 entering the eighth when Jacob Gonzalez ripped a single to right field to even the score.
Mississippi then scored back-to-back runs on wild pitches by Sooners right-hander Trevin Michael. Justin Bench raced home on the first wild pitch to make it 3-2, and Gonzalez sprinted home two batters later to give Ole Miss a two-run lead.
Oklahoma (45-24) fell just short of forcing a decisive Game 3 in its quest for a third championship in school history. The Sooners won the title in 1951 and 1994.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth, when Gonzalez hit a solo homer to right to give Ole Miss a 1-0 lead.
Oklahoma responded with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh. Jackson Nicklaus hit an RBI double to left-center field to tie the score, and Kendall Pettis drew a bases-loaded walk to put the Sooners on top.
Ole Miss right-hander Dylan DeLucia was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
–Field Level Media