Ole Miss had the Rebel faithful worried for multiple innings on Saturday as the No. 1 team in the land battled with Central Florida.

UCF hit a 3-run blast in the eighth inning to take a two-run lead, and then the Knights held on into the ninth until Tim Elko came up with runners on first and third and the game tied. That’s when Elko laced an 0-2, two-out pitch down the right field line to break the tie as the Rebels won 6-5. That capped a three-run ninth inning in the first game of a double header in Oxford.

A captain for the Rebels, Elko has long been a key contributor. Last season, before it was called off, Elko appeared in 14 games, started 12, and batted .354, the fifth-highest average on the team and the highest batting average in his career.

The Knights were looking to clinch the series before Elko’s key hit.

It’s been an exciting season thus far for Ole Miss, which was ranked No. 6 in the preseason, then went 3-0 over Big 12 opponents who ranked in the preseason Top 25: then-No. 3 Texas Tech, then-No. 9 Texas and then-No. 10 TCU. That helped elevate the Rebels to No. 1 in the D1Baseball rankings.