In the nightcap of Opening Day of the 2026 College World Series, an interesting matchup was on tap between the Ole Miss Rebels out of the Southeastern Conference and the North Carolina Tar Heels out of the ACC. Friday night’s matchup between the Rebels and Tar Heels was the first time they had played in 57 years. Ole Miss leads the overall series 4-0 over North Carolina, with all four wins coming in District Three Regional Tournaments in 1964 and 1969. 

Starting with North Carolina, the Tar Heels reached the College World Series by sweeping through the Chapel Hill Regional, before having to win back-to-back games at home in the Super Regional over USC. 

For Ole Miss, the Rebels swept through the Lincoln Regional with wins over Arizona State and Nebraska before heading to Plainsman Park, where they swept Auburn in two games, advancing to the College World Series. 

Friday night saw an elite pitching matchup as Taylor Rabe got the start for Ole Miss, and Jason DeCaro for North Carolina. Neither pitcher gave much to work with, and other than a Dom Decker double that scored a run for Ole Miss in the third, both guys were feeling the moment on Friday night. Taylor Rabe would see his impressive start come to an end in the bottom of the 6th inning with two outs. Rabe finished his day after 5.2 innings, two hits, one run, 108 pitches, and seven strikeouts. Hudson Calhoun would be his replacement. Jason DeCaro would see his day in the top half of the 7th after 6.2 innings of work, giving up five hits, two runs, and nine strikeouts. DeCaro would be replaced by Caden Glauber. Both starters combined for 16 strikeouts, making for a truly remarkable pitching duel on Friday night. Hudson Calhoun would be the first relief pitcher to get pulled after 0.1 innings, while being replaced by Walker Hooks with a runner on second and no outs in the bottom of the 7th. 

Dom Decker would get things started for Ole Miss in the top half of the third inning with a double that scored Brayden Randle to give the Rebels an early 1-0 lead. Owen Hull would send one to the left field bleacher with a solo shot that tied the game at one. Ole Miss would retake the lead in the top half of the 7th inning with a base hit from Judd Utermark that scored Dom Decker to make it 2-1 Rebels. North Carolina would retake the lead in the bottom of the 7th with a sac fly and a base hit that scored two runs to make it 3-2 North Carolina heading to the 8th inning. North Carolina would add a three-run shot in the bottom of the 8th off the bat of Colin Hynek to extend the lead to 6-2 heading to the 9th. 

As it goes in the College World Series, Friday delivered two really good baseball games with two teams making just one more play to secure a victory. Friday gave the college baseball world everything you could have asked for on an opening day of the College World Series, with the nightcap coming down to two really good pitching performances and timely hitting. 

If you’re Ole Miss, you flush this one tonight and go out against Troy and do whatever you have to do to keep the season alive by at least one more day. Coming into the matchup with North Carolina, everyone knew that Rabe would get the job done but it would come down to the Ole Miss bats to avoid stranding runners and taking opporunity of every chance you get to build a lead over a pesky North Carolina team, and simply the Rebels were unable to do so and in the end that was all the Tar Heels needed to build mometum and secure a victory for a chance to play West Virginia on Sunday night. The same thing applies to Sunday afternoon for Ole Miss: Troy is a team that has come out of the losers’ bracket this postseason, and they take full advantage of their opponent’s missed opportunities. 

With the win, North Carolina will play West Virginia on Sunday night, while Ole Miss will face a scrappy Troy team on Sunday afternoon in an elimination game. 

Photo Credits- Ole Miss and UNC baseball accounts on X