LOOK: Lane Kiffin sends message to Ole Miss baseball, Mike Bianco following College World Series championship
After Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin has been vocal in his support of Mike Bianco and the baseball team all postseason. So when the Rebels defeated Oklahoma by a score of 4-2 on Sunday to claim the College World Series championship, Kiffin was quick to take to Twitter with his congratulations.
“LFG!!!!!!!! @OleMissBSB & @CoachMikeBianco so proud great job by this team,” Kiffin wrote.
The Rebels found themselves trailing 2-1 entering the bottom of the eighth but quickly got their bats hot to score the tying run. Just a little bit later, a passed ball gave Ole Miss the lead for the second time in the game. Oklahoma continued to fall apart after that as a wild pitch allowed Jacob Gonzalez to score for the third and final run of the inning.
Despite not being a Regional host, Ole Miss lost just one game throughout the entire NCAA Tournament on its way to claiming the first College World Series title in program history. Sunday’s win completed a sweep of the Sooners in the final after the Rebels delivered a dominant 10-3 victory in Game 1 on Saturday.
The Rebels finished Sunday’s game with just six hits, three of which came during the eighth inning. Jacob Gonzalez led the team with three of those six hits and two RBI, including a solo home run during the fourth inning. No other player on either team had more than one hit.
Not only is the championship the first in the baseball program’s history, but it is also just the second all-time for Ole Miss as a program. Lane Kiffin will hope he can one day join Mike Bianco in that group to add a third championship with the football team. In the meantime, he will continue to celebrate this win with the baseball team and the rest of the Rebels fanbase.