After rallying to beat USC in the Super Regional, North Carolina is on its way to Omaha where the Tar Heels will face off against Ole Miss in their opening game. Here is a run down on the Rebel’s baseball team.
Overall Record: 41-21, 15-15 in SEC play, good for ninth
Ole Miss additionally was 27-7 at home, 10-10 on the road, and 4-4 in neutral games. This is the Rebels 27th time in the tournament and their seventh trip to Omaha, their first since 2022 when they won it all for their only National Championship.
Head Coach: Mike Bianco
Bianco is a former catcher at LSU who is in his 26th season at Ole Miss, which is his second head coaching job after three seasons at McNeese St. With the Rebels, Bianco is 990-586-1 with one SEC regular season title, two SEC Tournament titles, nine NCAA Super Regionals, three College World Series appearances and the aforementioned National Title back in 2022.
Best Hitter: Judd Utermark
The senior third baseman from Charlotte, North Carolina (yep concerns for sure) led the team in batting average, hits, runs, total bases, slugging percentage, and on base percentage while finishing second on the team in doubles, home runs, and walks.
Utermark played exceptionally well in the Rebels Super Regional where he went 3 for 7 with a home run, a double, four RBIs, and two walks.
Best Pitcher: Taylor Rabe
Even though Hunter Elliot is Ole Miss’s number one starter, the sophomore Rabe has been the better pitcher in the NCAA Tournament. During his two starts, Rabe, who hails from Greenville South Carolina, has pitched 13 innings striking out 17 batters to just three walks and giving up only three runs with one home run. Rabe has also thrown for over 100 pitches in both his post season starts. Again, the Tar Heels will probably face Elliot, which is good news for North Carolina (assuming Bianco doesn’t make a change).
How they got to Omaha:
After finishing ninth in the SEC, Ole Miss lost their only match up in the SEC Tournament before getting selected as the two seed in the Lincoln Regional. There they went 3-0 beating the top seeded Nebraska Corn Huskers once and the three seed Arizona State Sun Devils twice to win the regional. They then played Auburn in the Super Regional. This was their first matchup against the Tigers (uneven conference schedules due to giant conferences) and won 2-0.
