After winning its first national championship in 2022, Ole Miss Baseball had consecutive losing seasons in 2023 and 2024. Several players departed during that time, leaving the program in a poor position. Now, head coach Mike Bianco and a few players who stuck with the program through those dark years are returning to Omaha, Neb., to compete in the College World Series.
The Rebels went 25-29 (6-24 SEC) in 2023, then 27-29 (11-19 SEC) in 2024 — a far cry from the perennial NCAA Tournament program that Bianco established.
Ole Miss lost a significant amount of talent after its College World Series triumph. Tim Elko, Kevin Graham, Justin Bench and Hayden Dunhurst, all starters in the championship final, were taken in the MLB Draft just a month after winning the national championship.
The 2022 CWS most valuable player, David Dellucci, was also drafted at the end of the season. Additionally, Brandon Johnson, who got the final out of the championship, went in the draft.
A fall-off between seasons seemed understandable; however, such a dramatic drop was certainly not expected. The Rebels were ranked No. 4 in D1Baseball’s preseason rankings going into the 2023 season.
Following the disappointing 2023 campaign, Peyton Chatagnier and TJ McCants transferred. Jacob Gonzalez, Calvin Harris and Kemp Alderman were drafted that year as well.
Third baseman Andrew Fischer and left-handed starter Liam Doyle transferred to Ole Miss in 2024, while Wes Mendes joined the team as a freshman.
Fischer provided 20 homers and 57 runs batted in for the Rebels, helping them get five more SEC wins than they did in 2023. Alternatively, Doyle and Mendes had not reached their peak while at Ole Miss. Doyle threw 55 innings to a 5.73 earned run average and Mendes completed 31 ⅔ innings with a 6.82 ERA.
Fischer was later taken at No. 20 in the 2025 MLB Draft. Doyle went on to be the No. 5 pick in that draft, and Mendes just finished a productive season with Florida State earlier this month.
They would have been excellent players to have on the Rebel roster for at least another year, but all three transferred to other schools at the end of the 2024 season.
“That was the first time that we lost players. We felt that. Maybe I was a little naive,” Bianco said in the postgame press conference on June 6. “Maybe I wasn’t ready for that, but in this era sometimes that happens.”
The 2025 season was a return to normalcy for the program. The Rebels went 43-21 (16-14 SEC) and hosted a regional. They did not advance to the supers, but it was certainly a step in the right direction.
“We focused hard, as a team, on hanging out a lot more last year and being close knit, and it worked for us,” senior first baseman Will Furniss said in the postgame press conference on June 6. “Then we fell a little bit short, and this year we really hammered down on it again.”
Mitchell Sanford, Isaac Humphrey and Ryan Moerman transferred into Oxford for the 2025 season and were big contributors to a much-improved record. That was also current catcher Austin Fawley’s first year as a Rebel.
Luke Hill, who transferred to Ole Miss in 2024, stayed with the program and was an everyday infielder for two years.
“Back then Luke Hill was a big leader on the team, and there was this contingency of guys that kind of held it together,” Bianco said. “(I) certainly appreciate it. In this era of NIL and the transfer portal, so much is put on the kids and it’s hard, it’s pressure. It’s pressure from parents, pressure from agents, pressure from a lot of different people, but you appreciate the guys that stick it out.”
Hayden Federico burst on the scene as a talented hitter out of high school. Other freshmen, Walker Hooks, Cade Townsend and Taylor Rabe (redshirt freshman), now mainstays in the Rebel pitching staff, first appeared in 2025. Landon Waters and JP Robertson came to Oxford from junior college as well.
The biggest upgrade of all, however, was the addition of Joel Mangrum as the pitching coach. In 2024, Ole Miss’ team earned run average was 5.88. In 2025, Mangrum’s first year with the program, it fell to 4.65. This year, in the regular season, it was 4.37, fourth in the SEC.
Only one player, Hunter Elliott, remains from the championship team, but two others, Furniss and third baseman Judd Utermark, joined the team at a low-point and stayed all the way through. All three have certainly been rewarded for sticking around.
“I think back to Will (Furniss), guys that were good players, Judd (Utermark) and those guys looking you in the face and saying ‘No, I’m good. I’m here,'” Bianco said.
Through this year’s playoffs, the team members have talked extensively about the brotherhood they have established, which has contributed to the Rebels’ return to the pinnacle of the sport.
“You’ve heard everybody say that we’re really close type guys and that we like to ride the bus. We do,” Furniss said. “We actually have asked coach (Bianco) if we could take one bus sometimes on long trips. We’d rather be crammed and move with each other than be in two buses.”
Furniss, a core Rebel over the last four years, spoke about remaining with the program and having faith in the coaching staff through it all.
“It’s just a really close group of guys. Sticking through it has really paid off,” Furniss said. “(We) trust in the coaches to put together a product on the field and recruit guys that are good locker rooms guys, and it’s really helped us a lot.”
In recent years, the Rebel offense has been the team’s strength, while pitching has been its weakness. 2026 has been a different story. The offense has been more than suitable for much of the campaign, but the pitching is what lifted the squad to Omaha.
When the bats went cold on the road against Florida, it was the pitching that held the Gators to two runs in game three, buying time for Utermark and the offense to do its thing in the ninth. The staff has been a major story of this season.
It was three pitchers who bought the offense the famous stormtrooper helmet that sparked a surge, helping the team take the series from Florida and beginning an eight-game winning streak.
The most impactful pitchers for Ole Miss this season have not been transfers. They have been homegrown talents. Hooks, Townsend, Calhoun and Rabe have all been in Oxford since their freshman seasons, but have taken major strides this year. All have seen a significant decrease in ERA and increase in innings pitched.
Transfers Dom Decker and Tristan Bissetta have been everyday players for the Rebels in 2026. Their impact cannot be overlooked.
Decker is batting .272 with a .413 on-base percentage and an .842 on-base plus slugging percentage. He has scored 62 runs, driven in 33 and hit 10 homers. Bissetta is one home run shy of tying the all-time record for most homers in a single season by a Rebel. He also leads the team with 61 RBIs.
The offense has been defined by big hits, particularly home runs. Bissetta’s go-ahead grand slam against Texas to open SEC play, Fawley’s grand slam against Georgia, Decker’s game-winning homer against Georgia, Utermark’s game-tying shot against Florida and many more electrifying barrels from this season will always be remembered in Rebel baseball lore.
This year’s success has been a long time coming. Bianco, Elliott, Furniss and Utermark weathered the storm of two losing seasons. Now, Ole Miss is a few games from another national championship.
