HATTIESBURG | There was a casualness to it. Strike three. A hop, skip and strut, as Hunter Elliott raced from the mound. No major emotion. Nothing that signaled the moment unfolding or the unique legacy the freshman was leaving at Pete Taylor Park.

Elliott jogged across the field after a strikeout swinging ended the top of the seventh. He gave some high fives with his glove and disappeared into the dugout. In many ways, Elliott looked like he had just finished an early inning of a February midweek, blowing through some no-name team as a tuneup for what’s to come.

It was anything but that. At the time, and he wasn’t quite done, he’d sat down 21 of 22 Golden Eagles.

Elliott dismantled, dominated and discombobulated Southern Miss on Sunday, turning game two of the Hattiesburg Super Regional into a solo performance that will immediately seep into Ole Miss lore.The Rebels coasted past the Golden Eagles, 5-0, to sweep the series and advance to the College World Series for the first time since 2014.

Ole Miss will face Auburn or Oregon State first in Omaha, as the Rebels have won their first five games of the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever and outscored their opponents 45-11 through the regional and super regional.

Rebel pitching held USM without a run during the super regional, outscoring the Eagles, 15-0, in the two games. The Eagles had been shut out once -- to Dallas Baptist -- this season prior to that.

Elliott blanked USM for 7.1 innings and a two-out second-inning single was the only Southern Miss baserunner until two of the first three reached in the eighth to end Elliott’s day. He struck out 10, didn’t walk a batter and scattered the three hits with 97 pitches, 69 strikes. Elliott was at 67 pitches through six innings.

“I was trying to avoid as many three ball counts as I could,” Elliott said. “Flood the zone, attack with my best stuff.”

With the long hair, No. 26 and precocious mound presence, Elliott is often mentioned in the same sentence as former Ole Miss ace Doug Nikhazy, but what the Tupelo, Mississippi, native did in the clincher, considering the circumstances, is the ultimate comparison. Ole Miss won all four games Nikhazy started in the NCAA Tournament during his career, but none of them were this dominant.

“He came over there to back up a play and he hasn’t broken out a razor yet,” USM coach Scott Berry said. “He has the mound presence of a senior and he has total control.”

Elliott said he shaved two days ago and it’s a little patchy. Facing No. 6 Miami and No. 11 Southern Miss, Elliott combined for 14.2 innings, six hits, 18 strikeouts and one run.

Josh Mallitz, courtesy of 12 straight sliders, stranded the bases loaded in the eighth, getting a strikeout and a pop out around a walk. He also pitched an easy ninth inning, serving up a pop-up to end the game and start the celebration that was, fittingly, caught by captain Tim Elko.

USM starter Tanner Hall tried to keep up with Elliott and held Ole Miss scoreless for four innings with a devastating changeup that fell from the zone and under bats. But, in the fifth, the Rebels got to him for three runs. Jacob Gonzalez and Kevin Graham had RBI singles, and a run scored on a passed ball — USM’s sixth of the series.

Justin Bench singled in a run with two outs in the sixth, and TJ McCants, in his only at-bat of the weekend, had a solo home run in the eighth inning. That set the Ole Miss crowd into a frenzy that didn’t stop until the final out when the Rebels piled around the mound.

“I’m speechless and so proud of this team,” Bench said.