Ole Miss’ Jack Dougherty unlikely champion against Oklahoma, Rebels puts Rebels 1 win of the Men’s College World Series

OMAHA, Neb. The Ole Miss, one of the last four teams invited to the NCAA baseball championship, is just one win away from being the last team standing.

Mississippi defeated Oklahoma 10-3 In the first competition for the world’s top three college men’s series finals, buoyed by an unexpected arm win: relaxed bowler Jack Dougherty.

Dougherty, a sophomore from Collierville, Tennessee, was forced to serve as a rookie because the team’s 1-2 aces were used in the Mississippi’s run to this championship series.

“Fitness Trainer [Mike Bianco] He grabbed me before the game and said, “Just be you,” Dougherty said after the match. “Go out, attack with your fast ball, advance in counts, hit like you’re playing, and you’ll be successful.”

Right responded with his longest outing of the season: five rounds of perfect baseball before leaving the hill in the sixth with a 4-1 lead and the rules loaded unchecked. His relief came via freshman Mason Nichols, who hit five of the seven hitters he faced in two rounds of action and only gave up one round, charging Dougherty.

“I thought this was already a baseball game over there [in the sixth]out of the field there with just a couple,” Bianco said.

Triple Ole Miss pitchers — Dougherty and Nichols and second student Josh Malitz — enjoyed a firm cushion early on, as their fellow hitters scored two rounds at the top of the first and added one more in both the second and third rounds. The last of these are off the bat of first-year and rookie Fifth-year-olds Oxford, Mississippi, folk champ Tim Elko, who slammed his 24th homer of the season, the most notable 4 on the board, which was the top four-outing for any MCWS mixes since 2009 .

When teammates TJ McCants, Calvin Harris and Justin Bench blasted their back-to-back teammates into the eighth-place top — the first team to do so since LSU in 1998 — the score was 8-2 and the game was basically over.

Oklahoma missed an opportunity for what seemed like a major mismatch on paper, sending ace Jake Bennett to the pile with a week’s rest, having not featured since the Sooners’ inaugural game against Texas A&M on June 17. Now, Ole Miss will have No. 2 rookie Hunter Elliott and his perfect post-season record on the hill on Sunday afternoon with a chance to win the title in a five-day break. Should Game 3 become necessary on Monday, Rebels ace Dylan DeLucia should have available for at least some action after the gritty finish on Thursday afternoon that propelled the Ole Miss into the finals.

The Rebels are one win away from not only their first MCWS title but their second NCWA-recognized school national championship in any collegiate sport. The women’s golf team won their first league title just a year ago. The school actually held three national football titles from 1958 to 1960, but none of those titles were honored by the Associated Press or coach polls.

“We still have another match to win,” Elko said. “Obviously it’s great to win the first game, but we still have one more to take back all home. We’ll rest tomorrow, focused and ready to win another one.”