Ole Miss falls to Troy, ends College World Series run in Omaha
Troy erased a 6-2 Ole Miss lead with 10 straight runs, sending the Rebels home from Omaha and into an offseason that now shapes 2027.
A 6-2 Ole Miss lead slipped away in the middle innings, and Troy turned a controversial balk call into a 12-8 elimination win that sent the Rebels out of Omaha and into an offseason that will shape the next chapter in Oxford. The loss ended Ole Miss’ 2026 season at 41-23 and closed a College World Series run that had kept Lafayette County locked in on Charles Schwab Field for another June weekend.
Ole Miss scored eight runs on 12 hits, but Troy answered with 14 hits and 10 unanswered runs across the middle innings. The Rebels were in front 6-2 midway through the game before the momentum shifted, and Troy piled on with a four-run seventh and a three-run eighth to finish the comeback. A balk call on Hunter Elliott became a turning point, and Troy’s Sean Darnell drove the game with three hits, a home run and four RBI. Noah Thigpen got the win, and Zach Crotchfelt closed it out as Troy earned its first-ever College World Series victory.
Even in defeat, Ole Miss reached Omaha for the seventh time in program history and the first time since 2022. It was also the Rebels’ third College World Series appearance under Mike Bianco, tying Tom Swayze for the most by an Ole Miss head coach. Ole Miss earned the berth by sweeping the Lincoln Regional and Auburn Super Regional, then beat Auburn 5-3 in the Super Regional finale on June 6 after back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning pushed the Rebels back to the national stage.
For Oxford and Lafayette County, that matters beyond the final score. Ole Miss baseball is one of the region’s biggest shared markers, pulling in students, alumni, longtime fans and visitors who plan their weekends around postseason games. The run also gave the program back-to-back 40-win seasons and renewed the kind of national visibility that keeps recruiting, ticket interest and local energy high even after the season ends.
The offseason now begins with real stakes for 2027. Will Furniss carried the memory of last year’s home elimination by Murray State through the winter, and Ole Miss answered by getting back to Omaha. The next phase is less dramatic but just as important: roster decisions, development and the work of turning another College World Series trip into a stronger finish. The 2022 national title still stands as the standard, when Ole Miss finished 42-23 and won 10 of 11 postseason games at Charles Schwab Field. This time, Omaha ended in disappointment, but the Rebels again put Oxford on the sport’s biggest stage.
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