Caracci shows us what fortitude looks like as Ole Miss survives Georgia

Sometimes in life, you fail. And sometimes you fail big. But most of us won’t ever fail while pitching for all the world to see on Twitter.

With Ole Miss up 3–1 in the Top of the 8th, Parker Caracci took the mound to seal the victory.

Georgia quickly got two men aboard, but there were two outs. The next Bulldog batter tapped a pitch back to Caracci. The entire world knew the play was at 1st, but then this happened:

It was a horrible moment for Parker Caracci. The lead was lost and the game tied thanks to his mistake. The game and a national seed were in serious jeopardy.

Caracci probably wanted to crawl under the pitcher’s mound.

Instead, he did the opposite and struck the next batter out on three pitches.

“Sometimes we mess up,” Bianco told reporters after the game. “We all do things. Maybe it’s not on the mound on national television, but we all do things that, if enough people saw it, they’d go, ‘What the heck were you thinking? I can’t believe you did that.’ You’d probably go, ‘Yeah, I’m glad it wasn’t on national television.’ But one of the amazing things about that, is he struck out their best hitter right after that and got off the field. That’s who he is. He can handle it and not let it blow up on him.”

No, he did not blow up.

But he almost did.

In the Top of the 10th, the lead-off batter hit a home run.

That would have been an excellent time to blow up. Georgia was up 4–3. It seemed for a moment like everything was going wrong for Caracci. But he turned around and retired the next three batters.

The Rebels were still down a run, but Caracci never “blew up.” He kept fighting. He stayed in the game. He threw the next pitch.

And on this day, he was rewarded for his courage in the face of defeat by the bats of Fortes, Thomas Dillard and Rowe, and Ole Miss won 5–4 was a walk-off.

It was an amazing win. Ole Miss survives to play the loser of Texas A&M/Auburn on Friday at 3pm, and hopefully locked up the national seed with win №43.

But Caracci is the story. More than a story — a lesson.

One day the fires of life with roar again. Failure or disappointment will come. What will we do then?

I know what I hope I’ll do.

Whisper “Caracci,” smile to myself and throw the next dang pitch.