Ole Miss arrived in Omaha with plenty of reasons to feel good about its chances in the College World Series, but it didn’t last long.
The Rebels had worked their way through a tough Lincoln Regional, knocked off quality competition and carried a roster that looked capable of making a run in the bracket.
Friday night at Charles Schwab Field, those hopes took a serious hit and by the time the eighth inning was over, they’d been washed away completely.
For six innings, the Rebs looked like they might actually pull it off. Ole Miss held a lead heading into the seventh and had No. 5 North Carolina on the ropes.
Then Judd Utermark’s run-scoring hit pushed the advantage to 2-1, and it felt like the Rebels might be in the driver’s seat.
The Tar Heels tied it right back up in the bottom of the seventh, grabbed the lead before the inning ended and then blew the game wide open in the eighth on Colin Hynek’s three-run blast off the left-field wall.
What had looked like a winnable game turned into a 6-2 defeat and an early trip to the losers’ bracket.
For most of the evening, the game looked like it might belong to the pitchers.
Ole Miss starter Taylor Rabe kept North Carolina’s lineup off the board for the first five innings, and UNC starter Jason DeCaro was holding his own on the other side as well.
The Rebs drew first blood in the third inning. Leadoff hitter Dom Decker laced a double that plated a run, giving Ole Miss a 1-0 lead that stood for several innings.
Rabe and the Rebel defense looked like they might be able to protect that lead for a while longer.
That changed in the sixth inning. Owen Hull, UNC’s cleanup hitter, connected on Rabe for his eighth home run of the season with a solo shot that tied the game at 1-1.
The blast came at a pivotal moment. DeCaro had just gotten out of a jam in the top of the inning, striking out Austin Fawley with two runners on base to keep the score even.
Leave it to Utermark to make a mark 🥳
His RBI single puts the Rebs back on top!
📺 ESPN#MCWS x @OleMissBSB pic.twitter.com/1YGQCvsfKU
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 13, 2026
Late-inning swings decide the game
Ole Miss wasn’t finished. Judd Utermark came through with a run-scoring hit in the seventh inning to give the Rebels a 2-1 lead and put the Tar Heels in a hole heading into the bottom of the frame.
By that point, Caden Glauber had entered the game in relief of DeCaro for North Carolina.
The Tar Heels answered right away. Leadoff man Jake Schaffner hit a sacrifice fly to right field to tie it at 2-2.
Then Gavin Gallaher singled through the middle to score Colin Hynek and hand UNC its first lead of the night at 3-2. Just like that, the momentum had flipped.
Glauber kept it there. He worked around a two-out single in the eighth inning to put up a zero on the board.
He got a double play to erase a leadoff single in the ninth, locking things down from the mound. North Carolina is an incredible 26-0 this season in games where Glauber has pitched.
Then came the knockout punch.
In the bottom of the eighth, Hynek, who had scored on Gallaher’s go-ahead single, stepped back into the box and unloaded a three-run home run into the left-field seats off Walker Hooks.
Hooks had hit Cooper Nicholson with a pitch and given up a double to Tyler Howe before Hynek got hold of a pitch left over the heart of the plate.
That made it 6-2 and effectively ended Ole Miss’s night.
The Rebs finished with four hits on the evening.
North Carolina managed just two hits through the sixth inning before the late-game surge, but that’s all the Tar Heels needed.
https://t.co/6487w89aGB pic.twitter.com/MZXZl6MLQV
— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) June 13, 2026
What’s next for Ole Miss in Omaha
The loss drops Ole Miss into the double-elimination bracket, where one more defeat sends the Rebels home.
That’s the reality of Omaha where one bad night can send a team to the edge. The Rebs now need to win to stay alive as the tournament continues into next week.
North Carolina, meanwhile, advances to face West Virginia that beat Troy 7-5 in the afternoon game on Sunday night at 7 p.m.
The Tar Heels are playing some of their best baseball at the right time and will be a tough out for anyone left in the bracket.
Ole Miss came to Omaha with a 41-21 record and a roster that fought its way through a competitive Lincoln Regional. This team has shown it can win tough games when it needs to.
Now they’ll have to prove that again now that they’re in must-win territory.
