Ole Miss' Will Furniss finally gets to Omaha, where dad was College World Series legend
OMAHA, NE — In his last chance to get to the place that helped make his father’s baseball career, Will Furniss broke through.
Ole Miss baseball (41-21) will face No. 5 North Carolina (50-12-1) on the first day of the College World Series on June 12 (6 p.m. CT, ESPN) at Omaha’s Charles Schwab Field.
Furniss, a senior at Ole Miss, said making the College World Series felt like the missing piece in his career. It lets him get firsthand experience of what he could previously only hear stories about from his father, Eddy Furniss.
“It means the world to me,” the Ole Miss first baseman said.
Eddy Furniss is one of the best players college baseball history. In his four-year career at LSU, he won the College World Series in 1996 and 1997, and left college as the SEC’s all-time leader in hits (352), doubles (87), home runs (80), RBIs (308), and total bases (689).
Eddy is a family medicine doctor in Nacogdoches, Texas. Before, he could only share with his son about how cool the College World Series was. But that changed when Ole Miss clinched its first trip to Omaha since 2022.
“We can both have a shared experience,” Eddy said.
Eddy and Crystal, Will’s mom, have traveled to every Ole Miss game for Will’s senior season. Will and Eddy got lunch in Omaha on June 11. Will said he got advice about how to handle the excitement of the moment
Eddy focused on passing along advice about mentality. He told his son to treat it like a regional.
My first trip to Omaha was 1996. 30 years later @WillFurniss is taking us back. @CoachMikeBianco becomes the first to coach a father and son in the @CWSOmaha . Skip Bertman’s system still works! pic.twitter.com/E2GGA09hI9
— Eddy Furniss MD (@EddyFurniss) June 7, 2026
“The bases are 90 feet. The fences are 350-400 feet,” Eddy said. “The mound is the same. It’s been that way for 100 years. Baseball is the same. But what he’s experiencing, the lights are brighter, the field is bigger.”
Ole Miss baseball coach Mike Bianco coached Eddy in his time as an assistant at LSU from 1993-97.
He’s now been in the dugout with two generations of the Furniss family.
“It’s really neat, I think, for parents at this time to watch your son have success at the highest level of amateur baseball, but I think really cool for Eddy to be a parent, and Crystal, his mom, to see that and watch their son realize those dreams that Eddy did,” Bianco said.
Bianco has been especially complimentary of Furniss’ perseverance. Furniss enrolled as a freshman in 2023, the year after Ole Miss won the national championship.
Hard times followed. Ole Miss missed the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and 2024 and lost a home regional in 2025.
“To be on a couple teams that were the worst in Ole Miss Bianco era history, and then to be one of only three Bianco teams that made it to the College World Series, I mean, you are on the bottom and the top,” Eddy said. “It’s so cool to see those guys that stuck with it.”
Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss 1B Will Furniss’ dad was College World Series legend at LSU
