First baseman Will Furniss and third baseman Judd Utermark have stayed with Ole Miss Baseball through some of the program’s brightest and darkest moments in recent years. During times when it would have been easy to walk away, the pair chose to stay and build a legacy.
The corner infielders will get to end their collegiate careers in Omaha, Neb., but their journey to this point has been far from easy.
As freshmen in 2023, they experienced a 25-29 (6-24 SEC) record, and only jumped to a 27-29 (11-19) the following season in 2024.
At the conclusion of the 2024 season, Andrew Fischer, Liam Doyle, and Wes Mendes transferred out of Ole Miss to Tennessee and Florida State.
Three athletes who showed potential were given offers elsewhere, and took it as the grass seemed greener to them. While Furniss and Utermark could have also walked away, they chose to stick it out and believe in what they were building at Ole Miss.
In 2025, things began to trend upward. Both Furniss and Utermark stepped into major leadership roles on the team. As a junior, Furniss started 51 games at first base. He also hit 12 homers and drove in 47 runs.
Utermark had a historic year at the plate during his junior year. He had 69 runs batted in, which marked the fourth-most by a Rebel baseball player in single-season history. Additionally, he had 22 home runs, good for third-most in a single season all-time for the Rebels.
The Rebels finished the 2025 season 43-21 (16-14), and hosted a regional. Their season ended in the Oxford Regional after being eliminated by Murray State. Despite having worked and overcome many trials, they still had fallen short of the main goal: making it to Omaha to compete for a national championship.
In the duos final collegiate season, things still looked shaky throughout the year. The Rebels struggled with consistency, but ultimately comfortably landed a spot in the field of 64 as a No. 2 seed.
After sweeping the Lincoln Regional, they went on to the Auburn Super Regional, the closest to Omaha, Furniss and Utermark had ever been.
The Rebels took game one against Auburn, 6-4. Utermark, who captured the all-time home run record in program history earlier in the season, blasted his 22nd home run en route to the victory, which tied his single-season career best and matched the third most homers in a single season in Ole Miss history.
One win away from a trip to Omaha, the Rebels were tied with the Tigers in the eighth, 2-2. Furniss stepped up to the plate after going 0-for-8 on the weekend, and sent a ball out of the yard to give the Rebels the lead, 4-2.
The final out to secure the Rebel victory and a trip to the College World series was a ground ball to Utermark thrown to Furniss at first base. This moment was fitting for two athletes who had given their all to Ole Miss through thick and thin.
“It (going to the College World Series) means a lot to me,” Furniss said in the postgame press conference on June 6. We had a rough first two years here, (and) after that everybody just started jumping ship, and that’s when you learn what people are made of. Some core guys stuck around and we brought in guys that we thought would make a difference on our team, not only as players, but as teammates.”
In an era of college sports, where it is common to walk away and find an easier path, it is extra special to experience the high moments when an athlete has been through all the low ones too.
“You have to think about guys like Will (Furniss) and Judd (Utermark), they weren’t stars at that time (early in their careers). Will had a really good freshman year. Judd didn’t play much his freshman year,” Bianco said in the postgame press conference on June 6. “For those guys who look back at it, four years later or three years later, how cool that is for those guys to be in that dogpile. Guys that stuck it out. Guys that love Ole Miss. Their parents are here every weekend. The way it’s supposed to be. I think that part of it makes you feel good.”
