The No. 3 seed in the Coral Gables Regional, Ole Miss was the last team to receive an at-large bid to this season’s tournament, they are so glad to be there and deservedly so.
The Rebels finished the season winning seven of their last 10 games, including five victories over top-15 opponents, four within the top-10.
Tim Elko was one of five finalists for the 2022 Boo Ferriss Trophy, which was awarded to Southern Miss’ Tanner Hall on last week.
During his 12-game hitting streak, Kevin Graham is batting .480, posting multiple knocks in six of the last 10 games, including a 5-for-5 performance against Missouri on May 8.
Elliott’s 3.29 ERA is the 10th lowest in the country amongst freshman.
Both Gonzalez and Justin Bench are currently riding a 20-game reached base streak.
Ole Miss has won 30 or more wins for the 24th-straight season, the only team in the SEC to accomplish the feat.
VERSUS ARIZONA
Prior to last season’s NCAA Tucson Super Regional, Ole Miss and Arizona had met up twice in their history.
The first matchup came in 1956 at the College World Series, a 7-3 Arizona win.
The Rebels defeated the Wildcats 5-4 in 17 innings in 2021 in Oxford, the only-ever regular season meeting between the two sides.
Last season, Ole Miss and Arizona met up with a berth in the College World Series on the line in Tucson. After Arizona took game one, Ole Miss won game two 12-3 behind some early offense and excellent pitching performances by Doug Nikhazy and Austin Miller.
VERSUS CANISIUS
Ole Miss and Canisius have never met previously.
The Canisius baseball team will open the 2022 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship on Friday at noon when the Golden Griffins take on the No. 6 seed Miami in the first game of the Coral Gables Regional.
The Griffs (29-23) earned the program's fourth trip to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship on Sunday with a 9-5 victory over Rider in the title game of the MAAC Baseball Championship in Pomona, N.Y.
Canisius enters the NCAA Tournament riding a season-long six-game winning streak.
This will be the Griffs' first trip to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship since 2018, when the Blue and Gold took part in the Minneapolis Regional, which was hosted by Minnesota. Canisius is seeking its first victory in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.
Miami, who is hosting its 28th regional in program history, enters the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship with a 39-18 record and 20-10 mark in ACC play.
The Hurricanes are led offensively by CJ Kayfus with his .369 batting average. Jacob Burke also has a batting average north of .350, hitting at a .351 clip. Three players (Burke, Yohandy Morales and Maxwell Romero Jr.) have hit at least 12 home runs this season.
The other two schools in the Coral Gables Regional will be Arizona (37-23) and Ole Miss (32-22). Those two programs will meet in the regional's second game Friday at 7 p.m.
Canisius has never played any of the other three teams in the Coral Gables regional.
VERSUS MIAMI
Should they play, Ole Miss and Miami will meet up for the first time since 2008 at the NCAA Coral Gables Regional.
It would be the sixth matchup all-time between the two sides, all in the postseason.
Ole Miss fell to the Hurricanes 5-2 at the 1977 NCAA South Regional to end its season. Ole Miss and Miami wouldn’t meet again until the 2006 NCAA Oxford Super Regional. Ole Miss won the first game before the Hurricanes took two straight to advance to Omaha.
Two years later in 2008, Ole Miss dropped its first game of the Coral Gables Regional to Missouri before responding with back-to-back wins over Bethune-Cookman and Missouri.
However, the Rebels fell to Miami in the regional final, finishing their season.
ELKO IS THE HOMERUN KING
Tim Elko has slugged 41 home runs in a Rebel uniform, tied for second most in program history with Matt Smith and Matt Snyder.
The senior is seven dingers off Kyle Gordon’s school record.
REBS DIG THE LONG BALL
Ole Miss has been doing much of its damage this season by sending balls over the fence, ranking 25th in the nation with 91 home runs on the year. The Rebels have three double-digit home run hitters in Tim Elko (19), Jacob Gonzalez (14) and Kevin Graham (10) and have had 13 different players go yard. The Rebels have hit back-to-back home runs five times this season, including launching three in a row twice.
GRAHAM’S HITTING STREAK
Kevin Graham is in the midst of a 12-game hitting streak.
It is the longest hitting streak of the senior’s career and the longest at Ole Miss since 2019 (Thomas Dillard, 15 games; Cole Zabowski, 14 games).
ALL-SEC REBS
Ole Miss landed three players on the 2022 All-SEC teams, with Jacob Gonzalez, Tim Elko and Hunter Elliott all honored.
Gonzalez was named to the first team as a shortstop, ranking in the top-10 in the SEC in walks, runs and home runs.
Elko received his first All-SEC nod with Second Team recognition after recording the third most RBIs in the league during the regular season.
Elliott rounded out the honorees with a spot on the Freshman All-SEC team, posting a 3.29 ERA with 74 strikeouts, ranking seventh in the league in both
