On Championship Sunday Elliott did nothing different ... thank goodness for the Rebels
Jun. 27—OMAHA — In the biggest games in the most improbable Ole Miss run, the ball just seemed to find Hunter Elliott's left hand.
Game 2 in the regional against No. 6 seed Miami, Game 2 with a chance to clinch a College World Series berth in the super regional at Southern Miss.
So it was in Sunday's Game 2 of the CWS championship round.
Weeks ago this took on the look of a storybook season, and Elliott helped write the final chapter as the Rebels rallied to beat Oklahoma 4-2 and claim the school's first national championship in the sport.
Elliott didn't finish as the pitcher of record but was a major factor in the outcome.
A year ago he pitched at the corner of Varsity and Industrial for the Tupelo Golden Wave.
Now in the last month he's faced giant start after giant start. The stakes have increased each time, and he's responded each time.
"That's what the great ones do. When the stage is big, the importance of the game, that's when they really shine. He's one of those guys," Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco said.
Locked in a pitcher's deal with OU redshirt freshman Cade Horton, Elliott went 6 2-3 innings with three hits, 2 walks and six strikeouts. He mixed pitches and worked both sides of the plate with success.
Elliott's stellar performance, now an expectation not a surprise, unraveled in the seventh with the Rebels ahead 1-0.
There was a 2-out double, then a walk — sometimes a problem for Elliott this season — then one of those things you can't control when a bloop double found grass in shallow left field as three defenders converged. That tied the game at 1.
OU took the lead on a bases-loaded walk issued by reliever Mason Nichols.
As Ole Miss hitters continued to swing and miss against Horton it looked like the storybook finish might be put on hold.
The Rebels finally got Horton out of the game and took the lead against OU closer Trevin Michael who who entered the game with 10 saves.
While Ole Miss had to play the extra game against Arkansas in the bracket final starting pitching from Dylan DeLucia and Elliott went deep into games and kept the bullpen fresh for the championship series.
It still says freshman by Elliott's name, but when you play into June you've got a season's worth of experience. You've grown.
"I don't see myself as a freshman too much," he said. "I don't look at hitters as freshman hitters."
Nor does he look at any single game different from the rest regardless of stakes.
On the morning of Championship Sunday Elliott talked with friends and spent time with family.
"I was not locked in until it was time," he said.
When it was time he was on, and Elliott's late-season surge will be forever linked with Bianco's now-secure future.
Had Elliott not pitched like he did in Miami and Hattiesburg it's quite possible Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter would have made a change.
The ship sailed on that discussion after Hattiesburg, and with each passing game in the CWS it was farther in the distance.
Then Sunday Elliott, in his chilled out mode, took the mound and retired 14 out of 15 after giving up a leadoff single in the first.
He did nothing different in his pre-game routine.
"Once you throw that first pitch in there to me it's another game, another opportunity to get better and show who I am and who our team is," he said. "You know the stakes, you know it was to win the first ever national championship. I try not to think about it. I try to think one pitch at a time, and that's what I did today."
PARRISH ALFORD is the college sports editor and columnist for the Daily Journal. Contact him at parrish.alford@journalinc.com.
