The Season: Ole Miss Baseball - Relentless (2021)

[Music] baseball is filled with euphoric highs so the fly ball deep right field that is so far gone into the stands showers and right and the rebels will walk this baby off and devastating blows none bigger than the loss of ace pitcher gunner hoagland to a torn ucl forcing ole miss to redefine itself as the team races towards the finish [Music] [Music] tim elko arrived on campus in the fall of 2017 as the most heralded member of that year's recruiting class but the florida native found it tough to break through into the lineup in 2018. tim is a really good kid first and foremost he comes from a great family has an outstanding foundation to his life i think that's where it starts and so while it was really difficult for tim his freshman and sophomore year he came in the same year as tyler keenan they played the same position coming in and we all know that tyler is a really special player while tim had a lot of opportunity he didn't have as much success and so tim was a role player his first two years in and out of the lineup didn't have a ton of success the one thing that never wavered with him he's never complained my freshman year i might have got caught up a little bit and just trying to do well for myself and not thinking enough about you know doing well for the team and helping them in any way that i could to help us win you know i got past that and started focusing more on how can i help the team win and anything i can do and so i think that really helped me not only did the team first mentality help elko chisel out a role in the field he earned the respect of his teammates and was named the captain in 2020 when you think of a captain like you think of a guy with great leadership great energy no matter what he's doing or when he's doing it he's going to be there to help the team and when you think of all those guys there's one guy on our team that emulates all of those and it's timocco he never makes excuses and he always shows up to the field first leaves last and does everything right so that guys on our team know that this is an example of how to be a rebel and how to do things right and there's you can't ask for anything better out of a guy that's wearing c on his chest with his role solidified and the sea on his chest elko's offensive ability shined bright the right field line that will score bench and the rebels rally and elko hits a fly ball to right shacklet on the run to the track to the wall and gone for tim elko a three-run jack but in a matter of moments everything changed kicks and fires ground ball rolled toward the second baseman scooping it up as thrasher he'll throw to first and threw it away one run scores two runs score and elko shaken up he collapsed and it did not look good i think my initial reaction to put my hands on my head because i could tell it was bad and i was standing next to drew mcdaniel we were like get up come on get up then he went back in the training room we weren't sure what happened but then we heard it and it was it was a heartbreaking heartbreaking news he helped me feel better because like i said from the very beginning he had a smile on his face there were some tears in his eyes but a smile on his face obviously it was pretty sad at first but tim has had the best attitude throughout the whole thing give him so much credit for that all of the medical advice that we got or knowledge was hey he can try i think a lot of us including myself just thought that he was gonna be done i didn't think it was possible when when when tim came back and said that there might be a chance that i'm able to come back and play i was thinking of my head there's no way people that i know who've torn their acl and just immediately went and got surgery and but when he was like you know i'm going to do it like i'm going to try he's like because what's her to lose later that night i was telling him listen people come back and play on this you're going to be able to come back and give us a huge home run huge hit later on the postseason and the regular season something i don't know how many people actually believed he'd come back but from the beginning tim and i knew he was going to be coming back even when they told me that there was a chance that i could play again you know that that started firing me up a little bit just knowing that there was a chance i'd give back and help us keep winning games and um you know from that point on um you know got into the got into the training room with josh this is kind of something that i wasn't expecting and that i think a lot of people obviously weren't expecting but sometimes you just got to take the blows and trust god's plan for your life that's what i've just been trying to do and just stay positive through him you know use his strength and just know that he's got a better plan for my life and you know he's been doing some incredible healing on my on my knee and you know i really thank god for that and i'm just gonna carry it on through and just see what he's got in store for me whoa wait a second how about this right here tim elko elko with the torn acl moves into the on deck circle and we thought we may see him at some point this weekend michael spears was like hey elko's on deck and we all get up to the fence it's really really special just to hear this stands the fans uh just erupt when he walked into the batter's box it's giving me chills right now just still talking about it here he comes tim elko getting a standing ovation here at swayze field this is amazing wow it's just exciting to write his name it was such a cool moment and i know that you know all those people really care you know i don't know if you'll get that at a lot of other schools i'll be honest with you i was tearing up a little bit when uh he got that ovation and even before he was up he came on the on deck circle and people already started losing it and just how how much swayze cared about tim and how much it meant to them for him to come back was one of the coolest things i've ever seen oh my god that was really close you know i just missed it got a little under it but put a good swing on it so i think there's going to be a lot more of those to come penetrator blue thank you here's the man we were just talking about wearing that brace on his right leg tim elko the senior getting at a b today on a torn acl when tim came up to that i was talking the second baseman and he was telling everybody on the field to make sure the first one this guy can't run and then he came up to me and said uh what's he gonna do if he hits a home run that's a bat crawl around the bases i said no he could jog around the bases you know when they said right after the injury tim's going to do his best to try to you know wear the brace get the feeling better he's going to have to have surgery at some point but doesn't want to have it now wants to see if he can get back and help the team as a dh or something pinch it or late in the year and i just thought that was crazy thinking swung on fly ball right field you can kiss that one goodbye tim elko is back three run homer he won't be able to run hard around the bases look at the players come pouring out of the dugout you gotta love it elko with a three-run shot and he points to the sky that has to feel good for the captain it's a miracle like it's something that you know you look for in a movie and like we get to experience it every day and it's something special come on let's go let's go careful come here you see these moments where guys just become so selfless and so when that ball went out you could feel how excited and happy everybody was for tim to hear them as the ball gets out and listening to them and all the things that were said as they're walking out to greet him at home plate was a really cool moment yeah black it out so funny looking out a little bit okay i might have been wearing a lot of those things i've never seen him that was awesome you want to give him a hug so bad but there's so many guys giving him a hug they're like obviously you give him some fist bumps but then after the game i made sure it went up and was like hey man that was awesome i'm so proud and like happy for you that your journey is coming full circle oh it's so good to have him back you know so proud of him he's kept such a great attitude through the whole thing and to see him go deep like that was awesome again one of the coolest things i've ever seen couldn't be happy for too good to have him back let me tell you once i kind of came back too that was the first thing i thought of um you know i i can't thank god enough for him continuing to heal my knee and you know give me the opportunity to go back out there and do what i can and you know it's for him and you know he gives me that strength to do that so you know the first thing i had to do was thank him you know i'm just so [Music] thankful [Music] even if you don't follow college baseball you've probably heard of kumar rocker the only thing you see when you turn on the sec network talk about baseball is him and the guy throwing tomorrow and people are scared to face them i don't i don't know how else to say it and i'm not saying to act differently than what you normally do but don't you dare for one second back down from him all right so walk in there with big body language and walk in there like you're gonna own him because no one else does that we have uh i don't even know if anybody could argue it anymore uh we have the best offense in the league right like the statistics show that uh it's it's very clear these are the types of games that it's important that you believe that when you walk into the box i talked to three different hitting coaches in our league and all three of them talked about how hey you've got to pitch count him meaning uh drive his pitch count up so you can get him out of the game you understand what i'm saying like which obviously you want to do against good arms the average start in the 24 sec games for starting pitchers is like a four and a third innings pitch right for against us so we get we get starters out of the game at a great pace my point in all of that uh is i don't know how much we need to change like as far as what our approach is uh i don't think it's super hunt the fastball i think it's uh focus in and be really competitive and we're going to have success but you've got to believe that because these are the two guys because they're famous that that people back down from for whatever reason don't back down from them don't don't let that be the reason you don't have success well i think we're all quite familiar with number 80 big kumar rocker 6'5 245 the 21 year old is 11-1 on the year first in wins first in strikeouts first in innings pitch it has been some kind of season don't see many like this justin bench is leading off the inning he leads the sec in his fifth in the country and hit by pitches first pitch hitting wow you've got to be kidding me freshman tj mccants would follow bench to the plate and bring his coach's charge with him i'm not going to back down from anybody so i step in the box i know he's got like a lot of accolades and he's a very highly respected pitcher but i don't really think about that i just think about hitting the ball and doing what i do against every pitcher miles an hour hammers that out to right it is gorge two-run homer for tj mccance off of rocker and the rebels lead 2-0 i don't think there's any chance it stays in the yard time for a shower finally got a fastball up that i could uh do some damage on and thankfully didn't miss it because i didn't see many fastballs the rest of the weekend rocker's rocky start was magnified by the smooth sailing of rebel ace doug nickasy a one-two pitch swinging a miss he struck him out elevated fastball at 90 and he gets out of the jam [Applause] [Music] he just dominates with the fastball drops that curveball in there on him and it's just it's sick especially watching from center field where you can see the locations like where he's supposed to throw it and he's just hitting spots and striking guys out let's finish this thing off jake colwick will step in it'll stay in the yard john rice plumbing makes the catch and game one goes to the ole miss rebels these teams are so relentless i think we've had plenty of bad things happen to us a lot of punches in the gut and i think that's what shows the true colors of this team is just how we're how relentless we are in all facets of the game and i think this is a great example of that vandy ace jack lighter proved to be as good as advertised on saturday vanderbilt impressive on this saturday in oxford forcing a winner take all game three we got them right where we want them we really do we got them right where we want them one in one right with a chance to win the series if you were to ask me before this is where i wanted to be i wanted to be here on sunday right on energy sunday wearing a powder blues with a chance to win the series we've talked about it all year long we've talked about friday night lights we've talked about swing day we've talked about energy sunday now it's about who's going to be locked in who's going to be the most focused who's going to bring the most energy who wants to be there the most that's who wins on sunday but i hope by now in week 9 you know why we say all those things why we say you know friday night lights why we say swing day why we say energy sunday because it's about winning weekends right that's what it's all about it's about winning weekends and moving on so this is a chance to win a weekend let's go get them today [Applause] vanderbilt threw the first punch in the final round line base it back up the middle vanderbilt will take a two to nothing lead but the rebels swung back harder way outside ball four and the faces are full for justin bench [Applause] riley with the bases full and one down kicks and delivers swung on line left field corner well stroke left fielder can't get it's off the wall one run scores two runs will score graham dives into third to play at the plate not in time and two runs [Applause] second and third one out we'll be dealing with the left hand and hitting dunhurst just inside the line both runs will score dunhurst motors to second with a base clearing double and the pitch way inside and hit him he'll get a free trip to first base and the bases are full for kale baker this has turned into quite the mess for the commodores here in the third it can become an incredible inning ko can do something here where the base is full and just one down he's the ninth man up as the rebels will bat around high in the air out to left [Applause] [Music] what a time for a baker bomb and the rebels have jumped up eight to two on vanderbilt [Music] [Applause] and add some more to the rebels total up and away lost him and now they are loaded so mcdaniel's day will be over after three and two thirds let's go 1-2 to young breaking ball fly ball right field he's hit it well and it is gone a grand slam and vanderbilt is right back in the game [Music] with haymakers flying mike bianco and the rebels called on jackson kimbrell to stifle the offensive onslaught [Applause] let's go [Applause] the pitch curveball lifted into right field on the run leatherwood he's got it for the out jackson kimbrell arguably his best outing as a rebel takes care of the commodores one two three in the seventh he's retired six in a row while the rebel lead shrunk the offensive continued to provide timely strikes swung on fly ball right field that's a jack it's gone showers in right i'd take my time when i hit it that far too no doubter to right [Applause] that one is hit high in the air get up did gonzales do it again yes thomas can't grab it [Applause] the ole miss rebels go to the time of the night leading next one over vanderbilt 13-9 runner third two down tying run is on deck for vanderbilt 0-2 count again to troy lane come on baby ready in his 02. he stuck him out and the rebels take two of three from the commodore i don't know if there's a guy on the scene that doesn't believe that we're the best team in the nation um i'm just really proud of everyone it's it's so cool i love it i love this team it's amazing i think we'll wait a second and just take this in this is pretty cool [Applause] all right and more hey enjoy this this is cool as hell and this is why you do this man this is why you came here we say that a lot these people were invested today man right after getting us getting beat up you could feel the energy in the around the stadium early in the game and of course you guys brought it today i'm proud of you congratulations we got a lot of work to do though right it's not about one weekend but congratulations nice job

Channel: Ole Miss Rebels

Views: 111,401

Keywords:

Id: zPaTSiOTqvQ

Length: 22min 22sec (1342 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021