Justin Bench received a warm welcome from his teammates after achieving the third consecutive home run of Mississippi. (Jail Nash / Reuters)
Game 1 of the College World Series final was tense after seven innings.
But Ole Miss rode hot bats in the eighth to ensure she left Saturday with a 1-0 lead in the best of three championship series. TJ McCants, Calvin Harris and Justin Bench made consecutive home runs to open the game on the road to a 10-3 victory.
McCants started the hit party with a man in second place and two outs, while Ole Miss took a 4-2 lead. He raised 83 mph Chazz Martinez, breaking the ball over the right wall of the field and into the celebrating visor Ole Miss to increase the lead to 6-2.
Two games later, Martinez led Harris into a 0-1 hole. He would like to get his second game back. Harris dropped the fast ball at 92 mph at 430 feet and deep into the right center field to increase the lead to 7-2.
Martinez stayed in the game. Three pitches later, Bench sent his ball from 85 mph 1-1 at 379 feet and over the left center wall to the delight of the boisterous Ole Miss crowd that made the transition to Omaha.
The jacks from back to back marked the first time since 1998, when a team from the college world series recorded a home run through three consecutive shots and increased the Mississippi lead to 8-2.
Oklahoma would have added another cycle before the end of the game, but the damage was done as Ole Miss went on to win 10-3. Seven different Ole Miss beaters recorded RBI, with McCants and Bench scoring two each.
From first to worst … to champions?
At the beginning of the regular season, Mississippi was ranked No. 1 in the country. He finished last in the SEC West with a record of 14-16 at the conference. He entered the NCAA rankings without a ranking and not placed in the group of 64 teams.
But he finished undefeated in the Miami region as No. 3 of the four teams. She then defeated Southern Miss No. 11 in superregional competitions. He then qualified for the CWS final with a win over No. 14 Auburn and a top three win over Arkansas. Now there is a victory from the national championship.
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