OXFORD | TJ McCants stood for several seconds and admired his handiwork in the third inning on Sunday.
The Ole Miss outfielder hit the baseball 108 MPH and 395 feet. It cleared the right-field wall easily, and McCants took a moment to watch it fly. Maryland catcher Luke Shliger took exception to it, and the two of them exchanged stares and words, both leaving the plate and when McCants got back to it following the trot.
It was one of six Rebel home runs on the day — including two from Calvin Harris — as Ole Miss bludgeoned No. 13 Maryland, 18-8, to take the series after falling Friday and winning on Saturday.
No. 4 Ole Miss is 6-1 while Maryland fell to 3-4.
“I’m proud we hung in there,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “We have a lot of new faces in the dugout and we scheduled them to be challenged. That certainly happened. These are the weekends that make you grow up a little bit.”
Harris hit a walk-off grand slam in the seventh inning to activate the run-rule victory. He was 4-for-5 with eight RBIs. The game was chippy and spirited, and Ole Miss overcame pitching issues to win the series between top-15 teams. Dugout warnings went out to both teams, and the environment made for an excellent pre-SEC dress rehearsal.
McCants’ blast was the third home run of the inning for Ole Miss. The Rebels scored seven in the frame — one of two innings to do that — with his hit as the punctuation. It also capped a trying and difficult week for the sophomore.
McCants was home in Florida for several days to attend his maternal grandmother’s funeral. He missed the first two games of the series and returned to Oxford after the game on Saturday. It was another trying setback in what has been a difficult span.
“It’s been a rollercoaster,” McCants said. It’s been up and down because I’ve been excited to get back and play, but I spent time with family at home and it was good to make it a little better being around people I love and people who love me. I’m happy to be back up here.”
McCants’ mother, Felicia, passed away on September 12, 2022, of complications from liver cancer. McCants found out about his mother’s cancer during the SEC Tournament his freshman season, and last April, doctors gave her two weeks to live.
Felicia McCants, on the day she told McCants the grim prognosis, also told her son she dreamed Ole Miss would be in the College World Series and she would be there to see it. Despite her sickness, Felicia was in Omaha and hugged her son in the stands following the national title.
“Your heart breaks for him and his family and it’s a tough six months,” Bianco said. “The kid is sensational, and you know he’s a great player, but I don’t know how many kids could have gone through what he has gone through and play, and I’m just so proud of him.”
McCants and the other veterans in the lineup carried the Rebels through a difficult Sunday. All six home runs were by returning players. Peyton Chatagnier, Kemp Alderman and Jacob Gonzalez each hit one to go with McCants’ one and Harris’ two long balls.
The Ole Miss offense overcame the Rebel pitching that allowed 10 hits, six walks, four home runs and a hit by pitch. Ole Miss erupted for 30 runs the final two days of the series after the Terrapins held the Rebels to two runs on Friday.
Ole Miss hosts Louisiana Tech for two games in the midweek before meeting Maryland, the defending Big Ten champions and preseason expected conference winner, again on Friday in Minneapolis.
As McCants finished his home run jog and reengaged with Shliger, Alderman approached the plate to add support to the chatter. Ole Miss crept from the dugout just in case things went awry.
McCants knew his teammates were with him. They always had been during his difficult times.
“They are huge for me,” McCants said. “They are my second family. They do a good job not swarming me because I don’t like people to feel bad for me, but they shoot texts and see me and pick me up. I love those guys.”
