There's a very specific feeling that washes over Ole Miss baseball fans every June, and it's the muscle memory of 2022 — the year the Rebels backed into a regional as one of the last teams in the field and didn't stop until they were spraying champagne in Omaha as national champions. That same low-hum dread/excitement is back, because Ole Miss just won the Nebraska Regional and a very emotional Mintzy is here to tell you exactly what time it is.
Mintzy, in a red Rebels polo, going full selfie-cam on the warning everyone in college baseball already knows.
The headline arm was Taylor Rabe, who according to Mintzy went 6 innings and gave up just 1 run in the regional clincher — exactly the kind of starter line that turns a hot regional weekend into a legitimate Super Regional threat. You don't get out of a hostile road regional without somebody on the mound eating innings, and Rabe ate.
The shout-out for the starter who set the tone.
And shout out Taylor Rabe 6 innings one run last night!!!!
It wasn't a clean weekend on the way there. Mintzy was live-tweeting through the kind of regional baseball that makes you age in dog years — a guy out at second, a dropped fly ball, an inning that snowballed before anybody could breathe. He was also openly accusing the umpires of cooking the Rebs on a couple of calls, which is either fair criticism or a fanbase tax, depending on which sideline you're sitting on.
Peak elimination-baseball blood-pressure posting.
Umps need to be investigated for the two bad calls against Rebs. Disgusting
The collateral damage on the other side of the bracket is a Nebraska program that came in thinking this might be their moment, and Will Compton — the most online Husker on planet earth — took the loss the way only he could, with a sprawling, weirdly beautiful apology to Husker Nation promising eternal support and a program that will play harder than anyone for the rest of life as we know it. Big-swing stuff, but that's Compton, and that's what Nebraska fans signed up for.
Compton's post-elimination address to the Husker faithful, unedited and very Compton.
I just want to say one thing. To @HuskerTom1994 and everybody in Husker Nation, I'm sorry. I’m extremely sorry. We were hoping for National Championships in every sport. That was my goal —something that is borderline impossible. I promise you one thing, a lot of good will come out of this. You will never see a supporter in the entire country support as hard as I will support for the rest of eternity. You will never see someone push the rest of the fanbase as hard as I will push everybody in this lifetime. And you will never see a program play harder than we will for the rest of life as we know it on earth. Go Big Red and God Bless 🌽
So now it's birthday-cake Mintzy, a Rabe-led rotation, and a fanbase that has done this exact dance before. The cardinal rule of college baseball in late May/early June has not changed: don't let the Rebs get hot. They're already warm.