OMAHA, Neb. – The Rebels scored early, but the Trojans answered late and often.
Troy outscored Ole Miss 10-2 over the final five frames in registering a 12-8 victory in front of 24,013 fans on Sunday afternoon in Game 5 of the 2026 College World Series at Charles Schwab Field.
The Trojans (39-31) will face the loser of the North Carolina-West Virginia game on Tuesday, June 16, at 1 p.m. CT. The Rebels concluded their season with a 41-23 record.
Troy trailed 6-2 after four. The Trojans loaded the bases with two away in the top of the fifth. Blake Elliott was called for a balk to plate one run and Sean Darnell delivered a two-run single as Troy pulled within one at 6-5.
Jimmy Janicki lined a homer to left to lead off the seventh, his 21st of the season, to tie the game at 6-6. Jabe Boroff sent a double down the left field line to knock in two to give the Trojans their first lead at 8-6. A single by Houston Markham brought home Boroff to make it 9-6.
Hayden Federico had a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh and scored on a base hit by Austin Fawley as the Rebels pulled within two at 9-7.
Troy put up another crooked number in the eighth. Blake Cavill homered to start inning, his 14th, to make it 10-7. Drew Nelson and Darnell both scored on an error on an infield popup to extend the advantage to 12-7.
Will Furniss went deep for the nine time for Ole Miss in the bottom of the eighth to make it 12-8.
Ole Miss started the scoring in the bottom of the first. Dom Decker reached second after hitting a ball through Cavill at first base for an error. He moved to third on a wild pitch and came home on a single to left by Judd Utermark as the Rebels took a 1-0 lead. Following a double play, Tristan Bissetta walked and scored on a double to left by Federico to move the advantage to 2-0.
“Just an incredible baseball game,” Troy head coach Skylar Meade said. “I can say it jokingly now. We had to get on the guys after the first inning. I didn’t think we were ready to go. I hope there weren’t any hot mics. Might get in trouble on that. But you have to do what you have to do to produce results.”
Troy answered in the top of the second as Steven Meier drew a leadoff walk and scored on Darnell’s fifth dinger of the season to level the score at 2-2.
Fawley had a leadoff single in the second and Brayden Randle brought him home with a homer to right, his fourth, as Ole Miss reclaimed the lead at 4-2.
Randle led off the fourth with a base hit and scored in Collin Reuter’s eighth homer of the season to extend the Rebel advantage to 6-2.
Noah Thigpen (1-5) took over on the mound in the fourth with the Trojans down 6-2. He pitched 5.0 innings with six hits, two runs, one walk and five strikeouts to record his first win of the season. He left the field in the ninth to a standing ovation with fans chanting his name.
“It was definitely unreal,” Thigpen said of the ovation. “Probably one of my favorite moments of my life so far. I can’t lie. It was pretty cool. But I was just trying to give the fans a show and help my teammates because I knew the bats were going to come along and give us some run support.”
Darnell went 3 for 3 with three runs and four RBI to lead the Troy offense.
Federico finished with three hits for the Rebels, while Brayden Randle went 2 for 5 with two runs and two RBI.
“First, congratulations to Troy and Skylar Meade,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “What an amazing job they’ve done. They played so well today and competed so hard.
“On the other side, it always hurts to finish the season. When you lose, it stinks and it stings because you don’t expect it to happen. With that being said, if you’re going to lose, this is the best place to lose at. And right now I’m sure it doesn’t feel that way to our team. But my hope is, as the days pass and the weeks pass, they realize what a tremendous year they had.”
Notes
- This was Troy’s first win over Ole Miss in six meetings.
- Troy had the same starting nine for the 16th straight game.
- This was the first CWS game in which both teams hit three or more home runs since 2001.
- Sean Darnell is 5 for 6 at the CWS with two doubles and one home run. He did not have an extra-base hit during the Regional or Super Regional, going 4 for 25.
- Ole Miss went 0-2 at the CWS for the third time in seven trips to Omaha and for the first time since 1972.
- The Rebels entered the CWS 31-2 when leading after six innings this season. They were 0-2 in Omaha.
- With 12 strikeouts against Troy, Ole Miss raised its team total to 709, the top mark in the nation.