Ole Miss, Auburn prepared for familiar faces in opening round of CWS

OMAHA, Neb. (WLOX) - Ole Miss has already exercised the demons of 2021 and 2019 by rolling into Omaha. But with now six appearances on the sport’s grandest stage, they feel it’s probably time they end their stay with a win.

The first team in their way is the first team they faced in SEC play: Auburn. Ole Miss took that series two games to one, back when the Rebels were number one in the country, before dropping five of their next six series.

On the normal calendar, that was three months ago. But on the baseball calendar, that was an eternity ago. So even though it’s a familiar foe in the other dugout, both teams say what happened in mid-March isn’t exactly front of mind. It’s a whole new ballgame this time of year.

“There’s probably a little of being comfortable with that, but at the end of the day, we played Auburn weeks ago, and they’re different. We’re different,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco said. “It’s too much of the scouting reports and all that, it comes down to which guys pitch better, which guys get the timely hit, and that’s usually who wins.”

“We’re on a little bit more of auto-pilot mode than we were that first SEC weekend when things are happening and we don’t have to think about it,” Auburn outfielder Kason Howell said. “I think that’s what we’re looking forward to, we’re not going to think too much about the first time we played them. We’re just going to play our game and play at a high level.”

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