It’s a good thing Will Furniss held a lion’s share of the credit for Ole Miss beating Auburn on Saturday to advance to the College World Series.
Without it, Rebels’ coach Mike Bianco might have had more an edge to his voice when Furniss did what is, to be blunt, our job in the media.
During the post-game press conference, Furniss was asked about how different it was to be the team dogpiling on an opponent’s home field, rather than watching a team dogpile at Swayze Field like Murray State did last season.
“I know I thought about it literally all the way until opening day,” Furniss said. “It just sucked. It’s hard to forget about it. This was my last year, and a couple other guys’ last years. This guy (pitcher Taylor Rabe) is draft eligible, so it’s probably his last year, too.”
That prompted Bianco saying the following in the most jovial manner possible.
“Stop with that.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Furniss said quickly. “But yeah, you just wanted to do it for the guys around you. Last year, it sucked watching the guys who weren’t going to come back walk off the field. This year, we worked really hard not to let that happen.”
Mike Bianco ain't trying to hear no Taylor Rabe MLB Draft talk right now@OMSpiritOn3 https://t.co/ftBGOPgbY8 pic.twitter.com/4QEMwGjxP5
— Ben Garrett (@SpiritBen) June 7, 2026
Furniss said the quiet part out loud. Rabe is likely leaving Ole Miss for the MLB Draft next month. He’s seen his draft stock rise immensely. Pointing that fact out is usually our job in the media.
Typically in press conferences, players avoid speculating about the future. Quotes like “we’ll worry about that after the season” are more common than outright saying a teammate probably won’t be back.
Furniss isn’t wrong. Rabe has had a stellar 2026 season, working his way from the bullpen and into the weekend starting rotation. Now, he might be the best pitcher for Ole Miss and that includes the likes of Cade Townsend, an even higher-rated draft prospect, Hunter Elliott and Walker Hooks.
In 16 total appearances and 70.1 innings pitched, Rabe has compiled a 3.71 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, .229 opponents’ batting average while striking out 98 and issuing just 11 walks.
Taylor Rabe has been on a tear. His last 3 starts:
19 innings
1.42 ERA
3 ER
4 BB
30 Ks pic.twitter.com/LGV4JJ2aPE— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) June 6, 2026
He was at his best this weekend against Auburn. In seven innings of work, Rabe allowed two runs on six hits, eight strikeouts and one walk.
“A great performance by Taylor (Rabe),” Bianco said in Saturday’s post-game press conference. “When you’re really good, people can be very critical of how you’re doing and what you’re doing. But if you step back and say, ‘Hey, you’re going to be in a super regional championship game with a chance to go to Omaha, and your starting pitcher is going to pitch seven innings and only give up two runs,’ there’s not a coach in the country that wouldn’t take that.”
Rabe didn’t single out one pitch as being more effective or working better than the others. He credited the scouting report for a big part of his success.
“We have a really good scouting report that we spend a lot of time on,” Rabe said. “When we were looking at that, we knew Auburn was going to be a team that takes a lot of short swings, hits a lot of ground balls and kind of plays station-to-station baseball.
“It was going to be critical, even after giving up some singles through the gaps, to stick with it and not try to do too much. I think trusting myself, even after giving up some balls through the sixth hole, is what helped me get out of it and get some length today.”
If this is it for Rabe, and it probably is, he picked a pretty good time to pitch like a future pro. He’s been steady all year, but Saturday was something else. Seven innings. Two runs. One walk. A lineup full of short swings and ground balls that never rattled him.
Furniss said the quiet part out loud, but the numbers have been saying it for months.
Rabe has turned himself into the kind of pitcher who gets drafted high and leaves a hole behind.
Ole Miss will worry about that later. For now, they get to ride him all the way to Omaha.
