The first weekend of the tournament is over, and our first team had their flag lowered in Omaha. The Ole Miss Rebels’ season came to an end in the first of two games that saw plenty of late game heroics. Here’s a recap of Sunday.
Ole Miss? More like 0-2 Miss
Ole Miss came into Omaha as one of the best teams in the postseason. The Rebels swept through regionals and supers. None of that mattered at the College World Series where they were swept by UNC and Troy.
They were an overwhelming favorite in Sunday’s game at Troy as sportsbooks had them as a -250 moneyline to win. That made sense considering Hunter Elliott was on the mound and he hadn’t lost a postseason game since God knows when. None of that mattered either.
Ole Miss took a 6-2 lead in the fourth inning and seemed to be cruising. But a dicey fifth inning from Elliott that included a questionable balk call turned everything upside down. The only remaining member of the 2022 national title team couldn’t get out of the jam and allowed three runs to make it 6-5. From there, things spiraled. All-SEC lefty Walker Hooks came in in relief, and despite allowing just 11 walks in over 57 innings this year, he issued a leadoff walk to his first batter. Then, with two runners on, he was victim of the announcer’s jinx. ESPN’s Eduardo Perez marveled at a first pitch changeup for a strike and said, “That’s the pitch. He’s only allowed one extra base hit all year on that changeup.”
The next pitch was belted down the left field line from Jabe Boroff for his 20th and 21st RBIs of the NCAA Tournament. He became the first player since Adley Rutschman of Oregon State in 2018 to have over 20 RBIs in a single NCAA tournament.
The scoring didn’t slow from there and Troy eventually went on to win 12-8 keeping their postseason hopes alive.
Errors doom West Virginia in loss to UNC
North Carolina and West Virginia played in the first winner’s bracket matchup of the CWS Sunday. It was a massive game with massive implications, as 29 of the last 35 teams that have won the College World Series have started out 2-0.
West Virginia battled and had several opportunities throughout the game. The two were tied 2-2 in the sixth when the Mountaineers got two runners on with one out, but failed to plate a single run. In the following inning, disaster struck. The Tar Heels got a leadoff runner on after an error on a routine ground ball to third. West Virginia was able to get the lead runner out on a bunt from the next batter. With one out and a runner on first, UNC grounded into what should’ve been a routine double play, but another error by the second baseman kept both runners safe and the inning alive. Gavin Gallaher would triple in the next at-bat driving in two runs and then scoring one batter later thanks to an Owen Hull single.
From there, the Tar Heels pitching staff shut the door and closed out the game with a 5-2 victory. They even brought on Caden Glauber in the ninth to record the final two outs and improved to 27-0 in games he pitched. UNC will await the winner of Troy and West Virginia.
