The history of the College World Series is full of teams riding a hot arm on the mound to avoid elimination or to clinch a championship.
Ole Miss fans saw first hand four years ago when the Rebels won the 2022 national championship. They hoped to see it again Sunday with the Rebels facing elimination against Troy. They got to see it, but from a pitcher wearing the wrong colors.
Noah Thigpen shutdown Ole Miss at the plate after the Rebels dominated the first four innings and sent the Rebels home in a 12-8 win, the first ever win in the CWS for Troy. They plated two runs in the first, Brayden Randle hit a two-run home run in the second and Collin Reuter hit his own two-run homer in the fourth inning.
Watch it go 🫡
📺 ESPN #MCWS x @OleMissBSB pic.twitter.com/p5kd3XsBKp
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 14, 2026
Hunter Elliott was pitching an efficient game. He gave up just two runs on three hits, three walks, one hit-by-pitch and five strikeouts in the first four innings.
The Rebels led 6-2. An SEC school dominating a mid-major on college baseball’s biggest stage? The result felt inevitable. We had seen this script last season with Murray State getting bounced from Omaha by Arkansas in a no-hitter.
Sequels, though, are better when they don’t follow the same script. Thigpen made sure Troy wouldn’t be another small school to go 2-0 in the CWS.
CINEMA 😮💨
📺 ESPN#MCWS x @TroyTrojansBSB pic.twitter.com/LZpr4lSUEO
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 14, 2026
Thigpen threw five innings and allowed two runs on six hits, a walk and five strikeouts. Compared to the pair of Troy pitchers who lasted three innings, gave up six runs (four earned), four walks and two strikeouts, Thigpen was as great as he could be.
However, for as good as Thigpen was on the mound, Ole Miss was just as bad on its own mound.
Ole Miss sent its best relievers in after Elliott (who was charged with a run-scoring balk that will receive a lot of scrutiny in the aftermath of this game). But JP Robertson and Walker Hooks couldn’t slow down the Trojans, combining to give up five earned runs on five hits, a walk and two strikeouts.
Throw in an infield fly ball to end an inning turning into a two-run play for the Trojans and, like it did earlier, the result felt inevitable.
RUN FORREST RUN 💨
2 more runs coming in for the Trojans after a dropped catch! #MCWS x 🎥 ESPN / @TroyTrojansBSB pic.twitter.com/KtFeqo4ruY
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 14, 2026
Ole Miss was already down 10-7 when Jabe Boroff’s fly ball got lost in the sun and Judd Utermark struggled to see it. Shortstop Owen Paino came to help, called off Utermark and had the ball bounce off his glove.
The rest of the game feels a lot different if that ball is caught. Will Furniss’ solo home run in the eighth inning would’ve provided a bigger jolt of energy. The Rebels wouldn’t have had to go into the ninth inning trailing by four runs.
Hot as a FURNISS 🔥
Will Furniss with his 9th homer of the season!!#MCWS x 🎥 ESPN / @OleMissBSB pic.twitter.com/Uoq1tyVEiK
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 14, 2026
Maybe the Rebels mount a comeback. Maybe they don’t. But maybes don’t matter now.
Troy wins its first-ever CWS game, and Ole Miss is headed back to Oxford to start the offseason.
