OMAHA, Neb. – Leading off the seventth inning with his Troy Trojans trailing 6-5, Jimmy Janicki stepped in and looked at a first-pitch strike from JP Robertson.
Robertson’s second pitch, a fastball, drew a swing from Janicki, and after contact, the ball flew 417 feet over the left field bullpen, tying the game for Troy. It was the start of a four-run inning that put Troy ahead for good, as the outscored Ole Miss 10-2 over the final five innings of Sunday’s elimination game to survive and advance with a 12-8 win to another elimination game on Tuesday.
A three-run fifth had gotten the Trojans within one, and the homer chased Robertson from the game. A single by Drew Nelson and a walk to Sean Darnell brought up Jabe Boroff, who doubled into the left field corner to give Troy an 8-6 lead, their first of the game.
Houston Markham’s single off Walker Hooks scored Boroff, giving the Trojans a three-run cushion, Blake Cavill added another with an eighth inning solo homer, and a dropped pop-up allowed two more runs to score in the eighth.
The third day of the Men’s College World Series is the first day where a team says goodbye to Omaha and its season, and this year, Ole Miss is the first to pack up and leave Nebraska, the bullpen having given up seven runs on seven hits over the final five innings of the game, coughing up a 6-2 lead.
Leading off the first for Ole Miss, Dom Decker reached base and second when Troy first baseman Blake Cavill couldn’t handle his hot grounder. Judd Utermark singled him home for a 1-0 lead. Tristan Bissetta drew a two-out walk, and Hayden Federico hit an opposite field double into the left field corner, scoring Bissetta and doubling the Rebels’ lead. It was a sloppy inning that led Troy coach Skylar Meade to give his team a bit of a verbal lashing.
“Before the game, we said, ‘Hey, look, they’re Ole Miss. They’re big. They’re strong. They’re probably going to hit a ball early in the game. 110. You’ve got to either body up or you’re going to have to have one of those hard hit balls,'” Meade said of the pep talk after the game. “We’re going to have to make a double play. We didn’t do that. Then we didn’t kind of cut off the ball. We didn’t block a ball. We didn’t execute pitches. We got it. We walked the guy with two out. I mean, it was gross.”
Apparently, though, it got the Trojans going.
“I think for a second they thought they were more awesome than they were, so we had to bring them back to remember that their edge that I’ve alluded to many times is why they’re here, and I don’t care that we’re in front of 24,013 people,” Meade said. “And we are who we are, and we’re fighters and we’re killers, and we’re going to get after it. And whatever that was in the first inning is non-representative of what the ‘Power T’ is, and we’re going to be better, and we’re going to get after it. And that’s what the guys did.”
Steven Meier led off the top of the second for Troy by drawing a five-pitch walk, and Sean Darnell’s fifth homer of the year, a one-out shot to right center, tied the game at two apiece.
But the tie was short-lived. Austin Fawley singled to lead off the bottom of the second for Ole Miss, and Brayden Randle deposited Troy starter Tommy Egan’s 0-2 breaking ball into the right field seats to tie the game.
And on the mound for the Rebels, redshirt junior Hunter Elliott found a rhythm, striking out six through his first three innings, changing speeds and mixing and utilizing his slider effectively.
Having given up four runs through two innings, Troy starter Tommy Egan left the game after issuing a leadoff walk to Will Furniss to start the bottom of the third, yielding to Hayden Smith, who retired the Rebels without allowing a run in the third, but then gave up a leadoff single to Brayden Randle in the fourth. Collin Reuter followed Randle with a fly ball to right that hung in the air and carried into the Troy bullpen for a two-run homer to make it 6-2 Rebels. A walk to Dom Decker ended the day for Smith, and Noah Thigpen came in from the bullpen, striking out Utermark and Furniss before yielding a two-single to Tristan Bissetta.
Thigpen turned in his longest outing of the season, throwing five innings and allowing two runs on six hits, walking one and striking out five.
“You never know when you’re going to get the ball, so you just got to be ready to go at all times. And just do your job for as long as you can and then pass the torch to the next guy,” Thigpen said. By the time the sophomore from Lake Park, Ga. left, the Troy fans were chanting his name. “It was definitely unreal, probably one of my favorite moments of my life so far. Can’t lie, it was pretty cool.”
Two singles and a two-out walk to Drew Nelson loaded the bases for Troy in the top of the fifth, and Ole Miss starter Hunter Elliott’s pitch count was in the 90s.
Leading 6-2, Sean Darnell came up for Troy, and Elliott quickly got ahead of him 0-2. Darnell took a ball outside in the dirt and fought off an inside fastball, and then, standing on the rubber, cupped his hand to his head to better hear his pitchcom device before stepping off the rubber.
Immediately, first base umpire Billy Van Raaphorst signaled a balk, sending Josh Pyne home and advancing each runner. Darnell then laced a single through the left side, scoring James Janicki, and another single by Jabe Boroff plated two more runs to make it a 6-5 game. Rebels head coach Mike Bianco then lifted his starter for JP Robertson, who induced a ground out to first from Houston Markham to end the inning and the rally.
The Rebels lead, and their season, were both shortly to end.
“If you’re going to lose, this is the best place to lose at. And right now, I’m sure it doesn’t feel that way to our team. But my hope is as the days pass and the weeks pass, they realize what a tremendous year they had,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said following the game. “Just unbelievable to be here four years ago to win a national championship and then have some tough times. You know, to have to fight through two tough years of injuries and not being good enough. The seniors hung together and last year, we were a national seed and hosted, got punched in the gut, then weren’t able to get out of our own regional, but hung together again, and came back their senior year to get us back to Omaha.”
NOTEBOOK – With the win, Troy moves on to face the losing team from the nightcap between West Virginia and North Carolina on Tuesday at 2 p.m. EDT. … Ole Miss finished the season 41-23. … The balk by Elliott was the first of his career. … 24,013 attended the Sunday afternoon game, pushing the all-time attendance at Charles Schwab Field over 5 million.
Photo: Troy infielder Sean Darnell (37) celebrates with utility Drew Nelson (22) after scoring during an NCAA baseball College World Series elimination game against Mississippi, Sunday, June 14, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. Troy won 12-8. (AP Photo/Vera Nieuwenhuis)
