Two South Mississippians representing Ole Miss in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. (WLOX) - One last day of practice on Friday before two - or, maybe three - consecutive gamedays to round out the college baseball season. What a ride it has been, and what a ride it will continue to be through the weekend, between two teams who took slightly different paths to get here.

Of course, we all know the Ole Miss trajectory: from number one in the country, to the last team in the tournament. Oklahoma, on the other hand, stumbled a bit out of the gates before getting comfortable, only losing consecutive games two times after the first week of March, en route to a Big 12 championship. Both teams, though, had uphill battles in the tournament, having to win regionals and super regionals away from home.

Seeing your team’s name in the championship is surreal for everyone, even those who believed they could make it there. Two parents of the two South Mississippians on the Rebels squad - Hayden Dunhurst (Carriere) and Mitch Murrell (Ocean Springs) - said while they couldn’t quite predict being in Omaha this weekend, they did know these Rebels had a little something special.

“We’ve known since before the year started that this team was this good,” Bob Dunhurst, Hayden’s father, said. “They just went through such a tough time during the year, we were hoping sooner or later it would click and they could figure out how the pieces fit so they would have a chance. Once they got in, you always feel good.”

“I never would have dreamt it,” Roy Murrell, Mitch’s father, said. “My son, he’s been saying this since he was seven years old. This was his goal, he’d wanted to play in the College World Series. I guess he’s attained that.”

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