Mike Bianco on early lead against Oklahoma, Jack Dougherty's pitching

With Ole Miss taking a quick 4-0 lead through four innings against Oklahoma, head coach Mike Bianco had praise for Jack Dougherty’s pitching. Dougherty was perfect on the mound through four innings, helping Ole Miss get an early lead as they chase their first national title in school history.

Mike Bianco on Jack Dougherty’s pitching

Through four innings on the mound, Dougherty faced 12 batters and sent all 12 walking back to their dugout. The Ole Miss ace gave up zero hits and zero walks, while striking out six batters in his first start in three months. Bianco was interviewed before the fifth inning about what he saw from Dougherty early in the game.

“Just really good command,” said Bianco. “We know his stuff and his stuff can be really good. And one of the reasons we started him tonight was we wanted somebody to fill up the strike zone. He’s doing it. He’s doing it with both the fastball and the slider.”

On the offensive side of things, Ole Miss managed to find offense late in the first two innings with two outs behind wild pitches from Oklahoma’s Jake Bennett. Tim Elko contributed two runs of his own, including a solo home run to right field in the third inning.

“I think we’ve just had some really good at-bats, we’ve laid off some balls down [in the zone],” explained Bianco. “The fastball can be really dominant at times, but we’ve gotten some really big two-out hits.”

The good at-bats continued late, as Ole Miss hammered Oklahoma in the eighth inning, hitting three home runs in a row. The Rebels hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the eighth, scoring four runs and taking an 8-2 lead. The home run spree was the first time three-in-a-row were hit by a team in the CWS since LSU did it in 1998.