Ole Miss is back in the College World Series but it is an unfamiliar feeling for many
Welcome back to the College World Series, Ole Miss. After a six-year absence the Rebels are spending mid-June in Nebraska and competing for a national championship with seven other teams.
Omaha is a special place and has been the epicenter of the college baseball season with the final two weeks culminating at the newly-named Charles Schwab Field — formerly known as TD Ameritrade Park.
After snapping a four-plus decade drought when Ole Miss reached the College World Series in 2014 it was the first time for Mike Bianco. The Ole Miss skipper is now back for a second time in his 22-year career in Oxford.
Earlier this week Bianco reflected on the College World Series and what it means to Omaha hosting the annual national championship tournament.
“It’s the pinnacle of college baseball,” Bianco said. “It’s the mountain top and it’s what everybody strives for at the beginning of the year. I don’t think that’s ever changed in the whatever it’s been, 70 years, the College World Series.
Obviously, the way Omaha’s embraced the College World Series. That’s why it’s synonymous, Omaha and the College World Series. People don’t say they want to get the College World Series. They say they want to get to Omaha. You don’t do that without being a special place and the people in the community embracing (it).”
Bianco is returning to familiar surroundings but for his team they are walking into foreign territory and a stadium they have never set foot in.
On Wednesday, Ole Miss took the walk into Charles Schwab Field for the first time after arriving in Omaha. Prior to that, no Rebel on the current roster ever walked into the stadium but many have thought about what that moment would be like.
“I don’t know exactly how I’m going to feel,” said Peyton Chatagnier on Tuesday. “I’m going to be really excited. I don’t know what it’s doing to be be like, I’ve never been. I’m sure there will be some nerves and some chills walking into the stadium and everything. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait.”
The final ride for Tim Elko looked to be having a very premature ending midway through the season. Instead, Elko and the rest of the team heated up at the right moment and is sending the captain to Omaha for the first time to cap Elko’s career properly.
Elko was the one to secure the 27th out against Southern Mississippi on Sunday, clinching the ticket to get to Omaha. A moment that felt almost too perfect to be believed by those who did not witness it with their own eyes.
Now Elko, along with his teammates, are getting to play on the ‘Greatest Show on Dirt’ and the right to dogpile one final time in 12 days.
“It’s starting (to sink in now). It definitely took a day or two, for sure,” Elko said of getting to Omaha. “I grew up watching the College World Series and dreamed of getting there the last couple years now I finally get to play there. It’s a dream come true.”
Related: LISTEN: Let’s go to Omaha! And a long-overdue Ole Miss football Recruit Check
