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OMAHA | Ole Miss starts its College World Series with a date against SEC member Auburn at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

The Rebels, who have outscored opponents 46-11 during the NCAA Tournament on the way to a 5-0 record, send Dylan DeLucia to the mound against No. 14 national seed Auburn and sinker ball right-hander Joseph Gonzalez.

Arkansas and Stanford are the other teams on Ole Miss’ side of the bracket, and the winners and losers will play on Monday.

While we wait for first pitch, here are three keys for he Rebels in the College World Series nightcap.

Ole Miss saw a better version of Gonzalez during the super regional in Southern Miss’ Tanner Hall, who gave up four runs on eight hits to the Rebels in Hattiesburg. Gonzalez lives off command down in the zone and a sinker that creates a lot of weak contact when he’s on his game. He doesn’t have Hall’s devastating changeup, but their profiles are very similar otherwise.

Gonzalez has only walked 14 in 73.1 innings, but he’s also only struck out 47 and doesn’t throw the ball by batters. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but it’s a simple plan for the Rebels — stay on the baseball and don’t try to pull pitches away or on the outer-half of the plate. That creates a lot of weak ground balls and lazy pop ups. Instead, drive the baseball the other way and up the middle and don’t get too aggressive except for mistakes up in the zone. Sit dead red on those.

With the juiced baseballs — I don’t care what the NCAA says — Charles Schwab Field isn’t the graveyard it usually is, but it’s still very hard to drive the baseball out to center. It’s susceptible down the lines and toward the gaps, as evidenced by the most home runs in a game since moving from Rosenblatt Stadium yesterday between Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Auburn is really good on the back end with Carson Skipper and Blake Burkhalter, but relative to aces, this isn’t the worst matchup for the Rebels. The Tigers don’t believe in waste pitches, and the baseball will be in the strike zone. If they are patient and can stay composed offensively, which brings me to…

Coincidentally it was Auburn coach Butch Thompson who highlighted the goal as winning games in Omaha, not just reaching Omaha, when he spoke to reporters a couple weeks ago. Teams can get caught up in the festivities and very real goal of making the College World Series rather than maximizing the stay once getting there.

Ole Miss certainly felt fortunate to make the NCAA Tournament and was the last at-large team in the field, but there’s a different in being some underdog and just having new life. The latter is the mindset for the Rebels to be successful. Ole Miss has the top 2023 prospect at the College World Series in Jacob Gonzalez and was a top five preseason team and the No. 1 team in the country in March.

“People don’t fail because they aim high and miss, it’s because they aim low and hit.” said Thompson, quoting motivational speaker Les Brown. “For me to not aim high for our program, and start having our guys to envision a national championship, (then) I’m selling our (fans) short, and the potential of our program short.”

It’s been an emotional season for Ole Miss, but the past month has been a rejuvenation and a reset. Two of the nine D1Baseball.com national title picks were for Ole Miss, and the Rebels have four games of experience on the road against two of the teams in their bracket.

Despite all the mess for the middle of the season, Ole Miss is here and has an opportunity. Putting all the regional and super regional celebration and achievement to back of mind is the key to playing well. There are always a couple teams that have exhausted their reserves on the road to Omaha instead of in the gams once they arrive.

Sonny DiChaiara is clearly dangerous, and he can change games for the Tigers singlehandedly. In the super regional clincher against Oregon State, Auburn had three hits as a team, but DiChiara had two of them, including a two-run home run. He also scored another time.

He went 4-for-9 against the Rebels with seven RBIs during the three-game series to start SEC play. DiChiara has 22 home runs on the season and is hitting .392. He was over .400 as late as May 13. He’s hit 15 doubles and walked 68 times, including 17 intentional walks. Teams are avoiding him a good bit and not dealing with him when a base is open.

That’s the sensible strategy here. Auburn only has two other players hitting over .300 and no other hitter with double digit home runs. Blake Rambusch and Cole Foster are dangerous, but those are the guys to challenge if it’s them or DiChiara.

The Tigers have struggled at times moving DiChaiara around the bases after walks and with it being a pitcher’s park and Dylan DeLucia typically efficient and around the strike zone, he can go at hitters and make them find a hole, especially if the slider is sharp to go with the fastball.

Auburn also attempts fewer than one stolen base per game, and Rambusch has one-third of the steals.