The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rest and Recovery: Baseball Prepares for Super Regional
6/3/2026 | Baseball
BY JEFF ROBERSON
As the Ole Miss baseball team prepares for a Super Regional at Auburn this weekend, the Rebels needed a little recovery time. But it was quite brief.
The team returned to Oxford Monday afternoon after one of those infamous weekends of starts and restarts, extra inning games and late night (or early morning) finishes.
The Rebels headed to Auburn Wednesday afternoon. The first game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at Plainsman Park.
A veteran of these type postseason situations, head coach Mike Bianco understands what it takes to push through these moments, move forward, and prepare for the next challenge.
"In a Regional or anywhere in the postseason, and we mentioned this to the team, you need your stars to be stars and to show up," he said, after being asked about the relievers in the Lincoln, Neb., NCAA Regional the Rebels won, but also adding more. "And not just the bullpen but the team as a whole. You also need some other guys that maybe were a different role but now have that star-like weekend. Certainly we had that this past weekend, and several in the bullpen."
Within games, and sometimes those can be lengthy contests, there are always significant moments that can alter the outcome for one team or the other. In baseball those can come in a variety of different ways and in multiple situations throughout a game.
"Those are the differences, and it sounds like coaches' speak when we go through this," Bianco said. "And then you wake up 60 games later, and this pitch and how it swings things, and we get caught up in a sixth inning in one game and a guy inducing a ground ball and getting off the field, to walking and getting a run across, or striking out and not getting a run in. Or a pitcher not walking them. Whatever it is. When you're able to (make the plays in the moment), that's how the game's won. Makes a huge difference."
The Rebels will again be attempting to make plays on defense, get timely hits at the plate, and the pitchers get the opponent off the field. It's about making things happen in the moment. It's June and, just like throughout the season, everything counts.
Auburn is up next, a Southeastern Conference foe, but one the Rebels did not face during the regular season or in the SEC Tournament. Bianco admits that not having played the Tigers makes them a bit more unknown for his team, mainly because the staff is focused on the teams they actually do play during the course of a season.
"Sometimes it's the opposite of who they're playing, but you're not really watching them," he said, referring to the fact that they might actually be scouting another team who just happened to be playing Auburn at that time. "The coaches started to dive into it (Tuesday morning). We know why they're good. They do everything really well. Another really good opponent on the road."
But also, especially for players and also the coaches, there's that brief period of time back in Oxford that they can rest and recover from a winning Regional weekend in Lincoln.
"Really the message from me was to get some sleep," he said. "That was a tough weekend physically, I think, for everybody. Not just physically on the field but the late nights and stuff that we're not used to, not knowing the opponents and those types of things. You go to bed and have to wake up (early) the next morning. And we're always worried about how much sleep the players get, which is the most important thing."
