Ole Miss turned a tied game into a trip to Omaha on Saturday, beating No. 4 Auburn 5-3 and ending the Tigers’ season in the 2026 college baseball super regionals. Will Furniss broke it open with a two-run home run in the eighth inning, and Ole Miss finished the series 2-0.
That result was the day’s clearest separator in a round built around one thing: booking a place in the College World Series. For Ole Miss, the late swing mattered because the Rebels had already tied the game with Judd Utermark’s two-run double in the bottom of the sixth, then waited until the eighth to seize control. Auburn, the higher seed and the home team in the matchup, had carried the pressure of expectation into Saturday and left with a season that ended one round short of Omaha.
The final inning sequence told the story better than the bracket did. Ole Miss scored three runs in the eighth, and Furniss delivered the decisive blow with his two-run blast after the game had been level. Auburn never recovered from that swing, and the 5-3 loss closed out a postseason run that had put it in position to advance but did not let it escape the super regionals.
Ole Miss was not alone in earning a ticket. Troy beat Little Rock 7-2 and also won its series 2-0, with Tommy Egan striking out eight batters over 7.2 innings as the Trojans scored in five different innings. Blake Cavill and Drew Nelson drove in two runs apiece, while Jerdy Lopez homered for Little Rock in the bottom of the eighth.
Saturday’s slate also left several other series hanging. No. 3 Georgia beat No. 14 Mississippi State 13-12 to move ahead 1-0, No. 16 West Virginia routed Cal Poly 17-1 to sweep 2-0, No. 5 North Carolina beat USC 4-0 to force a 1-1 series tie, Oklahoma topped No. 15 Kansas 8-1, No. 6 Texas beat No. 11 Oregon 11-3 and No. 7 Alabama handled St. John’s 8-0. The remaining super regional games will finish the rest of the field, and the last teams standing will join Ole Miss and Troy in Omaha.
The Super Regionals are best-of-three series, which is why Saturday mattered so much: one win could keep a season alive, and one loss could end it. The bracket is taking shape one game at a time, and the teams still playing now know exactly what they are chasing.
