It was instant pandemonium in the Ole Miss Dugout Club one week ago when Ole Miss saw its inclusion into the NCAA Tournament.
Screaming, hugging, cell phones blowing up with texts and anxiety turning into opportunity as the Rebels saw their name flash on the ESPN telecast as the No. 3 seed in the Coral Gables Regional. The last at-large team in the field, the opponents and bracket were secondary to simply a chance to keep playing baseball.
But once the commotion calmed, the actual company in the Rebels’ part of the bracket set up a sort of ghosts of Mike Bianco’s past.
One step to that remains as Ole Miss blitzed through South Florida, going undefeated and outscoring No. 2 seed Arizona 22-6, to win the Coral Gables Regional and advance to a best of three super regional at No. 11 national seedSouthern Miss with the winner advancing to the College World Series.
The biggest hurdle in Bianco’s complex and accomplished coaching resume is ahead, but a lot of salve to other parts of it were applied over the last several days.
Had Ole Miss not made the NCAA Tournament, Bianco’s job was, at best, in extreme peril, and the grouping of a road regional that included Miami and Arizona and was a poetry of subtext to how things got here.
The Rebels were 0-for-7 in advancing from a road regional in Bianco’s 17 postseasons and 22 overall seasons prior to this cathartic blowout of the Wildcats. His team had to break that string of defeats to have the chance at stability and continue what’s been a great story of adversity with a team that was No. 1 nationally in early March, 7-14 in the SEC at the end of April and one of the more dominant regional showings nationally, spoiling the No. 6 national seed Hurricanes’ party.
Ole Miss had won the winner’s bracket in a road regional just once, in 2012 against TCU when it lost two straight to the Horned Frogs, but now it’s two times and there’s a regional title to go with it.
Arizona and Miami both symbolized postseason defeats from the past. The Wildcats eliminated Ole Miss in three games in the Tucson Super Regional a year ago, and Miami took two straight to end the Rebels’ season in the 2006 Oxford Super Regional — two contributors to Ole Miss’ 1-8 record in games to reach the College World Series and the stat most associated with those who want change from Bianco.
Miami also knocked off Ole Miss in the 2008 Coral Gables Regional final, finishing off a Rebels team that was No. 2 at one point early in the season and limped into the postseason as a No. 3 seed at Miami.
Symmetry. Full circle, in a way.
Now the road leads to Hattiesburg and a swing series in this redemption tour. Has Bianco done enough to step off the hot seat? I don’t have that answer, but a second College World Series berth would extinguish the conversation and set about some normalcy for a program that’s healthy in every way except routine Omaha travel plans.
And, of course, given this ride the Rebels are on, it’s Southern Miss. The team that beat LSU, knocked off what would have been a different set of demons, and set up an all-Mississippi matchup of two teams that typically play twice annually, met in the Oxford Regional a year ago and compete for perception more than players.
The Golden Eagles are talented and tenacious and just won three straight including two over LSU to meet Ole Miss. Pete Taylor Park is a bi-annual hostile environment for the Rebels and will be unfiltered bedlam this weekend.
The Rebels are one of the nation’s best comeback stories and have found the recipe with offensive stars, a core group of first-year arms, an established closer and the confidence that comes with throwing haymakers and winning different ways during a road regional.
Ole Miss has come a long way and an in-state hurdle determines the level of success. It’s already significant, but there’s an emptiness involved if the Rebels aren’t the ones dog piling in the Pine Belt in a few days.
One last ghost. It’s a Golden Eagle.
