Tim Elko realizes that he’s reached the pinnacle of college baseball, and he’s soaking it all in, in Omaha.

“It was an amazing moment,” said the Ole Miss star after the Rebels toured Charles Schwab Field on Thursday. “I’ve always dreamed of playing in Omaha. And I finally got here my last year. But just a really cool moment, being out there with all the guys and taking ground balls and just taking it all in. Really cool.”

Ole Miss was the last team to receive an at-large bid and a No. 3 regional seed, beat Southern Miss 5-0 in Hattiesburg. The Rebels recorded their first shutouts of the season and Southern Miss was blanked in back-to-back games for the first time since 1987.

Coach Mike Bianco reflected on the Rebels’ path to the College World Series, and how Elko impacted the team.

“We kind of struggled to figure certain parts out, especially the pitching side of it, and maybe most specifically the starting pitching. But a lot of credit has to go to our captain, the captain, Tim Elko, and a lot of the older guys. We have an older team that held it together,” he said. “We were at a bad spot, 7-14 in Southeastern Conference at one point. But they didn’t let it go and continued to fight, continued to play and work and grind. And we put it together at the end of the year. Weren’t sure on selection day if we would get in. We felt we were good enough to be in, but you never know. Thankfully we were in the tournament.”