Mike Bianco reveals new tidbit on hit-and-run in eighth inning to start CWS-winning rally

The hit-and-run from the bottom of the eighth inning in Sunday’s Game 2 of the College World Series finals will go down in Ole Miss history for all the right reasons — and Oklahoma history for all the wrong ones.

Nevertheless, the Rebels etched their name into history with a three-run inning that gave them the lead over the Sooners, and they never looked back afterwards. It began with a single from TJ McCants, who then advanced to third on what looked like a hit-and-run with Justin Bench at the plate.

While it worked out fantastically, Ole Miss skipper Mike Bianco couldn’t take credit for the call, adding some interesting commentary to what was believed to be a hit-and-run at the time.

“It really wasn’t a hit and run. It was a steal by McCants, and Bench poked a little line drive to right. But we knew, or at least I felt, we got our best base stealer on base, top of the lineup coming up with two outs. I think most baseball minds say, man, you’re going to have to pick a pitch here and go, try to get him in scoring position. If he gets thrown out, then you’ve got the top of the lineup at the bottom of the ninth and you try to tie it up or maybe get a walk-off,” revealed Bianco. “To be honest with you, that even pushed — I’m sitting there thinking we have not had a walk-off the entire season. That’s another one, can you imagine how many times somebody won the national championship and not had a walk-off win. So maybe we’re going to do it in the bottom of the ninth in the national championship game.

“So when they brought in the closer, we grabbed TJ and said, hey, you go whenever you want, but we’re going to pick a pitch and give you a steal no matter what.”

The play ended up being one of the game’s biggest, as it got the tying-run to third, and the go-ahead run on base. Continuing, Bianco added some more color to the situation, and what was going through his mind.

“After the first breaking ball we chose to steal, Bench gets a hit because he’s allowed to swing with the guy in motion, we get first to third, and then as Chase said, I know it hasn’t been a great week — it hasn’t been an awful week for Jacob, it hasn’t been a great week. But we weren’t going to steal Bench,” added Bianco. “He’s going to have a lot of room on the right side to hit a ball.

“I felt really good at that point where we were that we were going to win.”

The hit-and-run that wasn’t really a hit-and-run that started the momentum-swinging inning to clinch the first College World Series in Ole Miss history. It has an interesting ring to it, but Rebels faithful will remember it forever nevertheless.