HATTIESBURG | The wait was a couple minutes, but the thick Mississippi air and the moment seemed to suck all of the oxygen out of Pete Taylor Park for what likely felt like months to the packed assembly of a sold-out Super Regional party.

Ole Miss fans expected the worst which would have been a go-ahead grand slam for Southern Miss in the fifth inning. Southern Miss fans danced to the music and expected a reversal when the umpires signaled the result of a Reece Ewing blast that left the park on one side or the other of the right-field foul pole.

Replays were mostly inconclusive in full speed, but with the slowed-down video it was clear that white passed in front of yellow. The call on the field was correct.

Foul. Ball.

“I wasn’t thinking anything,” DeLucia said about the wait. He had his head down, pacing across the mound. “It was ‘OK, let’s get on with it.’”

It was a loud and game-defining strike instead of a bomb that would have exploded the Southern Miss faithful that had been waiting for much to cheer about. Ole Miss starter Dylan DeLucia struck out Ewing a pitch later and stared him down as they both walked off the field. The Rebels had a three-run lead at the time, but it would soon be much more.

With the lead and all the momentum, Ole Miss provided the bomb, a seven-run half inning that ended the suspense and carried the Rebels to a 10-0 win and within one win of the College World Series.

Game two is at 3 p.m. Sunday, with USM right-hander Tanner Hall facing Ole Miss freshman lefty Hunter Elliott. An if-necessary game would be on Monday.

Following the bases-loaded failure for USM, the first seven batters of the sixth for Ole Miss reached base. Tim Elko and Kevin Graham hit back-to-back two-run doubles, and Jacob Gonzalez and Hayden Dunhurst had RBI singles in the inning. Peyton Chatagnier started things with a walk. Chatagnier has nine walks since April 30. He had only three in the 93 at-bats prior to that.

“Mike Clement did a great job preparing our guys,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “We had really good at-bats and then were able to get that hit from Elko to blow it open.”

DeLucia shut out USM for 5.2 innings and put anther stamp on a season that he, in a lot of ways, saved once he entered in as the front-of-the-weekend starter. He struck out nine, walked two and scattered four hits.

“He’s stepped up for them,” USM head coach Scott Berry said about DeLucia. “They scrambled throughout the year, and they were trying to find the combination. That young man gave them the opportunity there and he hasn’t missed on it. We didn’t adjust when we could have gotten the momentum… when you miss, you increase their momentum.”

Jack Dougherty threw 3.1 hitless innings to conserve the bullpen for the rest of the series. Dougherty got his second save of the season, throwing 23 of 36 pitches for strikes.

USM was 1-for-9 with runners on base. Ole Miss was 8-for-23.

DeLucia wiggled out of a two-one, one-out jam in the second when the game was still scoreless and had retired 11 of 12 when Southern put three straight on base prior to Ewing’s at-bat. A close pitch on a full count and another walk started the trouble and Dustin Dickerson hit a hard shot to third on an infield single. Garrett Wood knocked it down and kept a run from scoring on the play.

Wood had an RBI double in the fourth inning. An Elko single and Kemp Alderman sacrifice fly started the scoring in the third inning.

Wood reached base four times and has reached base seven of nine times the last two games.

Ole Miss ran Hurston Waldrep’s pitch count up in the second inning but left the bases loaded. Waldrep lasted five innings and gave up four earned runs and six hits. He struck out 12, but there was plenty of trouble otherwise.

From there, USM used four different receivers for no more than 27 pitches.

It’s Ole Miss’ first game-one win in a super regional since 2009. The Rebels are 0-6 in series after winning game one, losing two straight in 2005, 2006 and 2009. Ole Miss won two straight after losing game one in 2014, and the Rebels lost games one and three in 2019 and 2021.

USM won two straight games in the 2009 Gainesville Super Regional against Florida, the only other super regional appearance for the Golden Eagles.

"Ole Miss played a much better game and we didn’t do enough," Berry said. "We didn’t play well enough to compete against a team like that."