Ole Miss: National Champions!

Hotty Toddy! The Ole Miss Rebels defeated the Oklahoma Sooners to become the 2022 national champions! The Rebels won game one and game two to win the best-of-three series, completing what many have called a magical run through the post season. The Rebels were about as unstoppable as a team could be. As a lifelong Ole Miss fan, I can hardly process watching Ole Miss dominate the competititon and play with confidence and swagger. It was a sight to behold. Highlights of the postseason must include legendary pitching performances by Dylan Delucia, who in my view has secured Archie Manning-tier status in Mississippi lore. Three-in-a-row homeruns to destroy the sooners in game one of the series was spectacular. You won’t read many write-ups about it, but pitcher Hunter Elliot had two timely pick-off plays at the College World Series that got the Rebels out of binds. And then there was the game 2 decision by Oklahoma skipper Skip Johnson to change pitchers. That call is going to haunt Johnson as one of the most inexplicable and ill-fated decisions of all time. Cade Horton, the starting pitcher for the Sooners, had dominated the Rebels the entire game. The Rebels could not hit him. Inexplicably, in the top of the 8th inning with the Sooners hanging on to a 2-1 lead, Johnson replaced Horton after he allowed a single. I said, “why in the world would he do that?” There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that had Horton pitched the complete came I’d be writing about a game three right now, but instead in came the Sooners closer Trevin Michael, and the wheels came off the wagon. The shift in tone was immediate and palpable. The Rebels got two hits and brought in the tying run, and then Michael threw no fewer than two wild pitches that allowed the go-ahead run to score, and then another, which gave the Rebels a 4-2 advantage going into the 9th. I was so immersed in the drama of that 8th inning that when Oklahoma set up to bat in the top of the ninth that it didn’t immediately occur to me that the Rebs were three outs away from victory, and then it dawned on me, oh wow, here we are, three outs away from a championship! Rebels closer Brandon Johnson struck out the remaining Sooners to claim the victory. The Ole Miss Rebels are national champions!