Rebels fight through adversity, ride rollercoaster season to Omaha

HATTIESBURG | Tim Elko, fittingly, caught the final out, raised his arms and raced toward the makeshift mountain of bodies celebrating on the triple-digit-degree turf that was the location for Ole Miss’ dominance over Southern Miss, shutting out the Golden Eagles twice to advance to the College World Series.

While the players all congregated and dove into the amassed humanity, the coaching staff shook hands and hugged in the first base dugout. Mike Bianco made the rounds and acknowledged his staff before joining the players who were unpiling before pictures and receiving College World Series caps.

With the coaches slow to join the players, it left the team members alone in their group, yelling, embracing and exhaling the adrenaline and anxiety of the past weeks. Ole Miss was the last at-large team in the field. The Rebels were 7-14 in the SEC when April ended and a team that went from No. 1 nationally to out of the polls in a matter of weeks, losing four straight SEC series.

“In a place we’ve never been in 22 years,” Bianco said. “We’d never been 7-14 in our league. The older guys didn’t let this team go.”

That was before Ole Miss went 8-2 to close the regular season and won their first five games of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, outscoring teams 46-11 along the way. They earned this cathartic celebration at Pete Taylor Park.

And it was a far cry from the last time just the team assembled after a game. That was April 19, a Tuesday night against Southeast Missouri when the Redhawks hammered the Rebels, 13-3.

Bianco has taken a positive tone with his team most of the season, but that night he let them have it, challenged them, raised his voice, threw out a lot of tough love and spent minutes in a far different tone than most of the roster was used to following bad games.

And after he was done, senior Ben Van Cleve addressed the team without the coaches, challenging his teammates to stay together and get back to playing quality baseball. Multiple players said they appreciated the take-charge nature of it, that Van Cleve chose to do something and step up and lead when the Rebels were reeling. Van Cleve told them to get to 14-16 in the SEC, and they would make the NCAA Tournament. It proved prophetic.

“There was never a time,” Bianco said, “that they didn’t believe they could win. We had our antennas up during that and didn’t see it. Even when we didn’t hit well or didn’t pitch well, I didn’t look in the dugout and wonder if we could win.”

The Rebels weren’t done losing, but they were done playing that poorly. Ole Miss lost two more series in a row — to Mississippi State and Arkansas — but the effort was there and it was just losing baseball games, not throwing away opportunities because of lack of focus or attitude or whatever.

There was another team meeting following Arkansas, as Tim Elko, Justin Bench and others made sure to air out any issues within the roster. Let players say whatever was on their minds and then throw it away and leave it in that room.

Meanwhile, Bianco challenged his assistant coaches to show up every day and be consistent and positive and coach hard. To control the only thing they could control which is to manage the team and the program with the correct and even tone each time they showed up to the park. He challenged the players to avoid social media as much as possible while knowing that’s against the nature of most 18-to-22-year-olds.

“We challenged the staff to coach your team and coach a team that a few weeks ago we said was really good,” Bianco said. “That’s your job.”

And, obviously, it wasn’t all attitude. Dylan DeLucia and Hunter Elliott cemented into a formidable one-two in the rotation after neither began the SEC season as starters. DeLucia didn’t start against Alabama in mid-April and Elliott didn’t pitch at all against South Carolina a week later.

Peyton Chatagnier ended his slump after moving down in the order. The bullpen became a strength, a group that hasn’t allowed an earned run in the NCAA Tournament to this point.

During the Missouri series the first week of May, former Ole Miss All-American Chris Coghlan spoke to the team, reiterated to stay focused on what has been the objective all season — to make the College World Series and win games when they get there, to not change goals because that changes the daily work to reach them.

It resonated, coming from someone outside the walls and from someone who is a former National League Rookie of the Year. Coghlan has texted Bianco and checked back in with the Rebels each week since then.

Bianco had to take the same advice. He says he avoids social media replies and wasn’t directly aware of the Internet and real, tangible talk around his tenure potentially coming to a close. He said he knew his children were aware, but they never said anything to him about it.

"It’s challenging for the players because their life is all about social media,” Bianco said. “I try to stay off of it. I’m on Twitter, but I only follow a few people. You learn in a hurry that if you don’t follow a lot of stuff, you don’t hear a lot of noise. If you don’t read past your tweets, you don’t see any of the comments. I learned a long time ago that you can’t live in that world.”

Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle, one of Bianco’s best friends in coaching, tweeted support for Bianco and his job security with the Rebels following the regular season, a message that seemed to indicate Bianco had some awareness of what was going on around him.

Bianco walked out of the stadium Sunday with a group of fans waiting for autographs and pictures. He patiently filled those requests and shook hands and headed for the team bus. A shower and a trip home to meet a large collection of fans at Swayze near midnight was next.

The team will board a bus on Wednesday and head to the airport for Omaha. Sixteen days after waking up thinking the season was over and realizing hours later there was new life.

“I told Mike if it couldn’t be us, I want it to be him,” USM coach Scott Berry said. “I think the world of him and how he runs his program and how his players act. We’re pulling for them to win the whole thing there.”