The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebel Fastpitch Softball Team Opens 1998 Campaign with Practice Tuesday
6/21/1999 | Softball
Nov. 3, 1997
OXFORD, Miss. -- Entering only its second season in existence, the Ole Miss fastpitch softball team began the 1998 campaign with its first practice Tuesday at the Women's Multi-Sport Complex.
With 14 players returning from the 1997 squad that finished 22-41, along with eight talented newcomers, head coach Joyce Maudie is looking forward to what lies ahead for this young group of athletes.
"I am very pleased with our work and enthusiasm," Maudie said during practice Tuesday. "Right now we are just reviewing fundamentals, but the team is excited to get started and they are working extremely hard. If they continue to work this hard, good things will happen to them."
Maudie is looking forward to her second year as head coach especially following the way the team started to play at the end of the 1997 season. Ole Miss got off to a slow start, but then the Rebels won nine-of-12 games during the stretch run and finished the second half of the season with a 10-14 slate.
More importantly, Maudie's young players now have a year of experience under their belts, something that will help the Rebels face five preseason tournaments against top-ranked teams and a competitive Southeastern Conference schedule.
The Rebels return two All-SEC second team selections in sophomore pitcher Amanda Fine and junior outfielder Stephanie Vaglica. Fine went 17-19 last year with a 1.84 earned-run average while also batting .294. Vaglica finished second in the SEC in 1997 with 27 stolen bases (in 30 attempts) and led the team with 35 runs scored.
Maudie is also excited about her eight newcomers, including transfers Kaci Coffee, Mandy Shklar and Kari Ceriani. Coffee, who played at Ohio University last season, will take over at third base while Shklar, the defensive player of the year for Tulsa University last season, moves into the shortstop position. Ceriani, a junior college transfer who is married to Rebel baseball catcher Matt Ceriani, gives the Rebels another arm in the pitching rotation.
"With our returning players who now have a season of SEC experience and our talented crop of newcomers, we will be in a good position," Maudie said. "We have improved our talent level tremendously, and we have a lot more depth."
The Rebels begin the season with a trip to Arlington, Texas, on Feb. 13-15 for the Pepsi Cola Classic Tournament.
Ole Miss plays its first home game at the new Rebel Softball Field, located just outside the Women's Multi-Sport Complex on Hathorn Road, against Middle Tennessee State Feb. 25 at 2 p.m. Michelle Smith, a gold medalist for the United States Softball team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, will be in attendance and is slated to throw the first pitch.
