Mike Bianco reveals message to Jacob Gonzalez before breakout CWS performance

Jacob Gonzalez played arguably the biggest role offensively during Ole Miss‘ 4-2 win over Oklahoma in the College World Series Final. Now that he can call himself the hero of the NCAA Championship game – his hitless streak is already a distant memory to Rebels fans.

“He’s a superstar. It’s tough; baseball is a tough game. Sometimes you don’t have a good weekend or a good game,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said of Gonzalez. “I grabbed him yesterday and told him, I said, take a deep breath, you’re a superstar, you’re going to be fine.”

When Gonzalez stepped up to the plate with the game knotted at zero in the sixth inning, he took his coach’s advice and launched a ball out of the park to earn the opening run of the game. He’d follow that up with an eight-inning RBI single that tied the game at two.

While that sounds that regular solid batting from a player on a national championship-caliber team, it’s even more impressive when you take into account that Gonzalez hadn’t been able to earn a knock in his previous 13 at bats before earning a single in the bottom of the fourth.

The streak of struggles wasn’t something Gonzalez had to worry about during the 2021 season, where the Rebels star earned Freshman All-American honors while he boasting an impressive .355 average, 12 home runs and 55 RBI’s.

This year, Gonzalez hit .273 with 18 home runs and 52 RBIs – while his average might have taken a dip during his sophomore season season, Gonzalez remained a pivotal member of the Rebels’ gameplan and proved he can play the hero when necessary following a rough week at the plate. Though, despite his 0-4 finish to Game 1, Gonzalez rounded the CWS Final with a .375 batting average through the two games played.

“Part of the tough week is we faced some really good pitchers and some tough left-handers,” Bianco said. “A couple days against Arkansas, we faced Hagen Smith, freshman All-American, who Hagen, we weren’t sure if he was getting tired or hitting a wall, and he pitched as well as he’s pitched all year here a few days ago.

“And then the Taylor kid pitched twice against us, and his opponents’ batting average is under .100, so it’s not just Jacob [Gonzalez] or [Kevin] Graham, nobody hits him. It’s kind of been some bad matchups for him, but he’s terrific, and we’re glad he’s on our team.”