Mike Bianco reveals special aspect of John Gaddis return to Ole Miss before title season

Barkley-Truaxby:Barkley Truax•06/29/22•

BarkleyTruax

John Gaddis spent four years playing at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Once his college career was over, he figured he’d go to medical school and live an ordinary life after that. After a solid senior season in Corpus Christi, however, Gaddis figured he’d give this baseball thing one last try – and he wound up a national champion.

Once he transferred to Ole Miss, head coach Mike Bianco saw the skills and abilities Gaddis displayed on the mound over the past two seasons.

“He’s been terrific, and like a lot of the arms that are really good, we struggled to find roles,” Bianco said of Gaddis. “We’ve struggled to define roles and figure it out, and you’ve seen it all year. We thought he had a tremendous fall. We thought he was going to be one of the three guys on the weekend. And once we got into conference play, that was tough. And then he had an appendectomy, and like a lot of things that have happened through that month of April.

“But he’s just a tough kid, just a great kid. How about that? Kid was going to go to medical school a year ago and said, hey, I had a pretty good year, I want to try to go to Omaha, and he picks Ole Miss and he gets to win in the national championship game. That’s another really cool story.”

Gaddis pitched 49.1 innings in 2022 for the Rebels, giving up 50 hits while striking out 49 batters and walking 19 this past season. His 4.20 ERA could be better, but the Rebels managed to find victory in 10 of the 17 games he appeared in.

His final collegiate appearance came during Game 2 of the College World Series where he pitched 1.1 innings, striking out two Oklahoma batters and giving up one walk en route to winning the NCAA Championship.

For 22 pitches, Gaddis was the man on the mound for a team in the drivers seat to win a national championship – a far cry from his humble beginnings. Now, his legacy will forever be immortalized in the College World Series, NCAA and Ole Miss record books for his appearance in the CWS Final.