June 15, 2006.

Baseball at Ole Miss has ended for the time being, but there seems to be no stopping the Rebels’ rise toward an eventual College World Series championship.

More than 26,000 fans poured through the gates of Oxford-University Stadium-Swayze Field for last weekend’s three-game Super Regional. It was the highest-attended Super Regional in the country, besting second-place Georgia by nearly 14,000.

Stadium expansion will start soon, adding luxury boxes down both baselines and increasing the seating capacity. With the re-signing of coach Mike Bianco through 2010, the program will continue to flourish.

Seats were so coveted in the general admission sections down the foul line and in the outfield that fans lined up four and five hours in advance of gate-opening time, which was two hours before the first pitch. Ole Miss officials referred to it as the &#8220releasing of the hounds.”

Like fire ants in a freshly punted mound, people scattered, toting plastic chairs with back legs removed. The theory was that one could anchor the leg stumps into the hillside and have a comfortable resting place for the game.

One fan hauled in a stack of chairs and watched as they tumbled from his arms to the bottom of an embankment. Not to be deterred and not wanting to relinquish his hold on an area of the hill, he spread his body on the ground and made a snow-angel pose waiting for reinforcements to fetch his chairs.

Beyond the outfield wall, there stood chuckers and the receivers. Since actually walking through the gates with tents and cribs was not allowed, the chuckers would stand on the outside of the iron fence and wait until the receivers burst through the gates. Then the chuckers tossed all the furniture from outside the fence to receivers who performed the setup.

The controlled chaos took all of five minutes, then the waiting began. For the next nearly two hours, the &#8220lucky” fans who did find a spot cooked under the blazing Mississippi sun.

The wait was worth it as the Rebels came within one win of earning a trip to the College World Series. It won’t be long until Ole Miss is in Omaha.

The Rebels have a proven winner in Bianco, plenty of talent returning and even more in the hopper. Every kid with a dream of playing college baseball had to be awed by the outpouring of support for the Rebels baseball team.

Opposing coaches lauded the progress of the program, many saying it was the best regional they had ever attended.

Miami coach Jim Morris, no stranger to the College World Series, said Ole Miss is on the cusp of greatness.

Even former New York Yankee first baseman Tino Martinez, calling the action for ESPN2, said he believed Ole Miss was going to win. He went on to applaud the Rebels’ baseball community.

So as the College World Series begins on Friday, fans will see the usuals – Miami, Cal State Fullerton and Clemson – playing for the national championship.

Maybe not next year, or the year after, but soon one will be able to add Ole Miss to that mix.

The program right now is just too good not to be a regular in Omaha.