The bottom of the lineup has made Ole Miss' offense scary in postseason run
OMAHA, Neb. — This is the lineup that Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco envisioned at the beginning of the year terrorizing opposing pitching. Fortunately that offense has reared its head in the postseason and has the Rebels a win away from playing for a national championship.
Ole Miss bullied Arkansas 13-5 in Monday’s winner’s bracket game of Bracket 2 to move into the bracket finals. The Rebels did so mostly off the production of Garrett Wood and Calvin Harris at the bottom of order.
In the eight and nine spots, Wood and Harris combined to go 4-for-7 at the plate with four runs batted in. Harris also hit the second Ole Miss home run of the night with a two-run home run in the fifth inning.
The first home run was Tim Elko destroying a baseball 416 feet to the final row of seats in left field for two runs in the second inning. Head coach Mike Bianco called it “one of the longest” home runs he’s seen hit at Charles Schwab Field.
But back to the real story of Monday’s win, an offense that is clicking on all cylinders from top to bottom.
“Those are the best offenses,” Bianco said. “The best offenses where you sit up and you hear coaches say 1 through 9, they’re difficult to navigate through that lineup.
“There’s lineups that are scary in the middle. There are lines that are top heavy. we’ve had some really good lineups here, and those lineups that are really good are you look up and the eight hole guy’s hitting three something or he’s got 10 home runs.”
This is not an out of the blue situation where Wood and Harris have suddenly become unstoppable at the plate.
Both have proven invaluable through this postseason run and the entire season.
Harris was becoming a threat at the plate early in the year when Hayden Dunhurst went down with an injury, sliding Harris into the everyday catcher role. But then Harris suffered his own injury when Dunhurst returned, stalling that momentum at the plate.
Now, Harris has found his groove again. On Monday he was 3-for-4 with four RBIs and drew a walk. Flipping the order back to the top with scoring opportunities on the bases.
“(Having that production is) very valuable,” said Justin Bench. “Having Garret Wood come in and play any position on the infield — and Calvin for sure. Everybody, having the eight, nine hitter come up, getting the order to turn to (Jacob Gonzalez), Tim and Kevin (Graham), that’s huge.”
Ole Miss is now in the driver’s seat of their side of the bracket and able to prop its feet up after starting 2-0.
They will not play until Wednesday, awaiting the winner of Tuesday’s elimination game between Auburn and Arkansas.
Those are two teams the Rebels have already beaten in Omaha and need to only win once more to punch their ticket to the national championship series this weekend.
“This is a big game,” Bianco said of Monday’s victory. “I think either losing the first or the second one, man, it’s tough. It’s tough to get through because you’ve go to play four days in a row and you’ve to win the next three just to get to to the championship series.”
Winning its first two games this year, the first time since 1956 Ole Miss has started 2-0 in the College World Series, it does not have that stress. Instead they can be the aggressor on Wednesday instead of worrying about playing too loose.
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