Justin Bench received a warm welcome from his teammates after hitting Mississippi’s third straight man. (Jaylynn Nash / Reuters)
Match 1 of the University World Series final was adjusted for seven innings.
But Ole Miss rode hot robes in the eighth to make sure she would come out on Saturday with a 1-0 lead in the championship series to the best of three. TJ McCants, Calvin Harris and Justin Bench made consecutive homers to open the game on the way to a 10-3 victory.
McCants started the hit party with a man in the second and two outs while Ole Miss had a 4-2 lead. He lifted an 83 mph ball from Chazz Martinez over the right field wall and into an Ole Miss holding bullpen to extend the score to 6-2.
Two pitches later, Martinez had Harris in a 0-1 hole. He would like to get his second release back. Harris threw the ball fast at 92 mph at 430 feet and deep into the stands in the center right to extend the score to 7-2.
Martinez stayed in the match. Three pitches later, Bench sent his ball breaking 1-1 at 85 mph at 379 feet and over the center-left wall to the delight of a shrill crowd of Ole Miss who made the trek toward Omaha.
The back-to-back shots marked the first time since 1998 that a college World Series team recorded homers using three consecutive batters and extended Mississippi’s lead to 8-2.
Oklahoma would add another run before the game was over, but the damage was done when Ole Miss got the 10-3 victory. Seven different Ole Miss hitters recorded RBI while McCants and Bench scored two each.
From the first to the worst … to champions?
Early in the regular season, Mississippi ranked first in the country. He finished last in the SEC West with a 14-16 conference record. He entered the NCAA tournament unclassified and without a seed in the 64-team group.
But he advanced undefeated outside the Miami regional as the No. 3 seed in four teams. She then swept the No. 11 seed Southern Southern in the Super Regionals. He then advanced to the CWS final with a win over Auburn, No. 14 seed, and a best-of-three victory over Arkansas. Now it remains to a victory of a national championship.