Here we are on Day 2 of the championship series of the 2022 College World Series. Ole Miss has a chance to claim a second consecutive national championship for the state of Mississippi today.
Yesterday, Ole Miss got an enormous performance by Jack Dougherty. Dougherty matched his season-high in innings pitched with five innings of three-hit, two-run work while striking out six and only walking one. It was just the performance that the Rebels needed out of their reliever-turned-starter for the day.
The bullpen picked up right where he left off with freshman Mason Nichols getting Ole Miss out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam. He pitched another clean inning to bring his outing to two full innings with a single walk and five strikeouts.
To cap the game off, Ole Miss handed the ball off to sophomore righty Josh Mallitz who kept the Sooners at arm’s length with two innings of two-hit, two-walk, one-run baseball where he tallied up four strikeouts of his own to bring the Ole Miss staff total to 15 punch outs of the Sooners.
On offense, Ole Miss jumped on Jake Bennett early. After Bennett retired the first two batters quickly, Tim Elko singled and later scored on a Kevin Graham single. Graham later scored on a Peyton Graham error to bring him the second run in the top of the first inning.
In the second inning, Ole Miss added another run on another two-out rally. Elko added a solo homer in the third before Bennett settled in fully and gutted out a good-enough-to-win performance. Bennett ended with 10 strikeouts in 6.1 innings pitched, but the seven hits he allowed resulted in four runs, three of them earned.
In the other dugout, the Sooners’ offense was sputtering mightily early. The first 15 batters went down in order before a trio of singles and a couple of walks scored their first two runs of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning to bring the game to just a two-run deficit.
A couple of innings later, Ole Miss kicked the door in on a Game 1 victory with back-to-back-to-back home runs to stretch the lead to 8-2. The Sooners answered with a single run in the bottom of the inning, but it was the pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning by Ole Miss that put any hope of a comeback to bed.
Today, Oklahoma faces an elimination game, their first of the College World Series. Let’s breakdown the game and give some predictions:
Oklahoma vs. Ole Miss @ 2:00 PM CT
Ole Miss will look to close out this series today with its number two starter on the mound in freshman lefty Hunter Elliott. Elliott is 5-3 this season with a 2.70 ERA. He has 96 strikeouts in just 73.1 innings pitcher. He does walk some batters with 32 on the season. He does a great job of corralling opponents’ lineups. Opponents bat just .206 off the lefty.
Elliott has been strong all June long with quality outings against Miami, Southern Miss and Arkansas. In his first outing in Omaha, Elliott went 6.1 innings against the Razorbacks. He allowed six hits, three runs, only one earned and a couple of walks while striking out four.
The Rebel bullpen should be ready to roll again. Mallitz will be ready to go still. Brandon Johnson will be well-rested and ready to go. I think Ole Miss has their eyes on shooting all the bullets at their disposal if it means sealing a second and final win in this series today.
Cade Horton will take the bump for Oklahoma. The redshirt freshman righty’s numbers don’t jump out at you really. He is 5-2 on the season with a 5.25 ERA and has 51 strikeouts to 15 walks in 46.1 innings pitched. His stuff is a lot stronger than the numbers say. He has at least eight strikeouts in his last four outings, including 11 punchouts against Notre Dame in his first outing in Omaha.
In that same four-game span, Horton has given the Sooners four strong outings where he has allowed two runs or less in all of them. He has looked really good against some of the best teams in the country recently: Texas, Florida, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame. I do not think Horton will shy away from the moment. He will be ready for today.
In a must-win game today, Oklahoma will have to exhaust all options in the bullpen. I expect to see their stud bullpen arm Trevin Michael in this one. They will ride with him as long as they can. One thing that cannot happen is Oklahoma cannot give extra outs and extra bases on errors. The errors yesterday let Ole Miss jump on the Sooners early.
The Rebel lineup was red hot last night. The captain Tim Elko led the way with four hits in four at-bats with a nice, opposite-field bullet home run. Much to the surprise of many, Ole Miss was active on the bases. It seemed to shell-shock the Oklahoma pitching staff and defense early.
I think Ole Miss will keep it up. They will continue to put pressure on Jimmy Crooks and the Sooner pitchers. I just do not see this offense slowing down at all. I expect them to pick up right where they left off.
The Oklahoma lineup has to wake up. They need hits, extra-base hits and stolen bases. They need to put pressure on the Ole Miss defense, but specifically, the heart of the Sooner lineup cannot go down quietly.
Yesterday, the bottom of the Oklahoma lineup scored all three runs with four hits, while the top six of the lineup were just 1-22 in the first game. The best two OU hitters, Tredaway and Graham, were a combined 0-7 at the plate. That just is not good enough to get it done here. The Sooners only got two leadoff runners on. Combine that with the threat of Dunhurst’s arm, and Oklahoma could not make much happen on the base paths.
I think this one has the potential to be pretty tight, but I cannot ignore how hot Ole Miss is. Tim Elko and the boys are having fun. The Rebs are hot. Horton may be great. Michael may have a strong outing out of the pen, but I like the way Ole Miss stacks up with Elliott, the bullpen and its offense. Give me the Rebs to win the 2022 national championship today.