Mike Bianco opens up about Ole Miss' undefeated run through College World Series

Ole Miss knocked off Arkansas to improve to 2-0 in the College World Series and place themselves just one win away from the championship series. The rise from 3-seed which had to sweat out selection day to one of the favorites to lift the trophy has made the Rebels one of the most interesting stories in college baseball.

During the postgame press conference following the win, Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco praised the way his team has performed throughout the postseason and into the College World Series after starting as a bubble team.

“Obviously we’re excited,” said Bianco. “This is a big game. I think either losing the first one or the second one, man, it’s tough. It’s tough to get through because you’ve got to play four days in a row and you’ve got to win the next three just to get to the championship series.

“So this was, as I thought about it this morning, and trying to go through the pitching plan and different scenarios and how we would use the bullpen, knowing that if you lose you’ve got a lot of innings to get through over the next few days, and fortunately we didn’t have to use that, but we were ready to empty the tank and use whoever tonight and not worry about the next day to win this game. And fortunately we didn’t have to do that. Hunter was just really, really good. But it was neat. “

Mike Bianco on pitching staff

As Mike Bianco continued talking about the Ole Miss run through the postseason, he spoke in-depth about the pitching staff’s ability to show up when needed most time after time no matter the circumstances.

“I may have said it, or maybe I’m confused, maybe I said it on the radio before I came in here, but tonight Mason Nichols threw, a true freshman,” said Bianco. “Hasn’t thrown since Coral Gables.

“Our closer, Brandon Johnson, hasn’t thrown since Coral Gables. That’s amazing. You’re winning games because we haven’t been in a game closer than four runs. So I don’t like bringing the closer, as you can see tonight, when you have a big lead, they’re just not used to pitching like that. They’re used to pitching with a lot of adrenaline, and tight ballgames. And so there’s times where we just won’t run them out there because the lead’s so big and because we’ve played so well, scored so many runs and pitched so well in front. But that was nice, and we had to get those guys out there today regardless of the score. Those guys had to touch the mound.”