Mike Bianco reacts to knocking Arkansas, LSU out of SEC Tournament

For the first time since 2019, the Ole Miss Rebels are back in the SEC Tournament Championship Game. That season, the Rebels fell to Vanderbilt, who they will be facing in this year’s tournament finale.

With Ole Miss making it all the way to Sunday, it also marks the fourth consecutive season that a No. 7 seed or lower has made it to the Championship. To get there, head coach Mike Bianco’s team took down No. 10 seed Florida (3-1), No. 2 seed Arkansas (5-2) and No. 3 seed LSU (2-0). He raved about his team following their semifinal win over LSU on Saturday.

“We just want to continue to play well,” Bianco said. “I know it sounds like coach’s speak but it’s really not about who you’re playing. We feel we’re pretty good as well and when we play well, we can play with anybody in the country. One of the things we’ve talked about for a long time now is ‘can we play consistently well over a period of time?’ Baseball is a tough game to do that, but this team’s done it now for a few weeks.”

Bianco is spot on, as the Rebels have played themselves into potentially hosting an NCAA Tournament Regional in Oxford for the first time since 2014. Ole Miss has won 13 of its last 19 games, including major RPI boosters over No. 1 Vanderbilt (x2), No. 26 Oklahoma, No. 34 Mississippi State (x2), No. 3 Auburn (x2), No. 16 Florida, No. 5 Arkansas and No. 12 LSU. The Rebels are up to No. 10 in the RPI Rankings, an eight spot increase from one week ago.

Ole Miss’ offense totaled just three hits in its 2-0 win over LSU on Saturday, two of which were the difference makers. Junior first baseman Will Furniss blasted a solo home run in the first inning and sophomore DH Campbell Smithwick extended the lead with an RBI-single in the fourth.

The Rebel pitching staff however were the stars of the show, as the foursome of freshman right-hander Cade Townsend, senior left-hander Gunnar Dennis, junior right-hander Will McCausland and senior right-hander Connor Spencer held the LSU offense to just two hits and no runs (first time this season) with eight strikeouts.

“Obviously it was another great baseball game by both teams,” Bianco said. “One of those pitching duels. I thought both teams pitched outstanding and we got a big home run by Will [Furniss] in the first and a couple of hits in an inning with a base hit by [Campbell] Smithwick to get us two. That usually isn’t enough, but the story of the game was us on the mound.”

Ole Miss will look to keep its success on the mound going on Sunday against Vanderbilt, as it boasts a 4.62 team ERA (39th in NCAA) while the Commodores are hitting for just a .268 team batting average (217th in NCAA) this season. Vandy is faring much better through its first two games in Hoover however, as it outscored Oklahoma and Tennessee 16-1 with a team .339 batting average.