The University of Mississippi Athletics
This Week in Ole Miss Softball
3/12/2001 | Softball
UPCOMING SCHEDULE:
Capital Classic (Sacramento, Calif.)
Thursday, Mar. 15
vs. San Jose State, 11 p.m. (CT)
Friday, Mar. 16
vs. BYU, 1 p.m.
vs. Texas Tech, 5 p.m.
vs. Iowa, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Mar. 17
TBA
Sunday, Mar. 18
TBA
THIS WEEK'S AGENDA
Ole Miss (11-11, 1-2 SEC) travels West this week, flying to Sacramento, Calif., to compete in the four-day, 15-team Capital Classic. In the team pools, the Rebels open with San Jose State on Thursday at 11 p.m. (CT), and on Friday, play BYU at 1 p.m., Texas Tech at 5 p.m. and No. 12 Iowa at 7. The results from the pools will determine the bracket for the tournament, which will be Saturday and Sunday.
Other teams participating in the Classic include No. 4 Cal, Eastern Illinois, Louisville, Miami (Ohio), Morehead State, New Mexico, Purdue, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Western Kentucky and host Sacramento State.
Ole Miss returns home Mar. 21 for a doubleheader with Southeast Missouri, beginning at 5 p.m. The Rebels' next conference series is against Kentucky, Mar. 24-25 in Lexington.
ALL-TIME SERIES
The Capital Classic will provide the Rebels their first ever meetings with San Jose State and BYU. Ole Miss is 1-1 all-time against Texas Tech, and lost to the Red Raiders, 1-0, on an Amanda Renfro no-hitter in last year's Fresno State Invitational. In 1999, Ole Miss defeated then 23rd-ranked Iowa, 1-0, in the schools' only previous encounter.
HOMECOMING
This week's California journey will mark a homecoming for three first-year Rebels that hail from the Golden State. Amber Slaton is a native of Lancaster where she attended Quartz Hill High School, while Kristi DiMarco is from Palmdale and went to Palmdale High. Slaton and DiMarco, both junior transfers, spent their last two years at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster. Also, freshman Jennifer Poore calls San Diego home, and spent her prep years at Rancho Bernardo High School.
TENNESSEE SERIES
Ole Miss salvaged the finale of its SEC-opening three-game series with Tennessee (12-14, 2-1 SEC) Sunday in dramatic fashion. Jennifer Poore belted the first grand slam in Ole Miss softball history to break a scoreless tie in the 10th inning and give the Rebels a 4-0 win over the Lady Vols. With one out and a runner on in the 10th, Jamie Cummings notched her second single of the game, and Kristi DiMarco followed with a walk. After Amanda Lehotak's fielder's choice groundout loaded the bases with two outs, Poore stepped up to rip a 1-1 pitch over the left field fence for the game-winner. On the mound, Jennifer Hughes recorded her fourth shutout of the year and sixth straight victory.
UT took the first two games, 3-1 and 4-2, for the series win.
POORE LEADS REBELS
After quietly raising her average to tops on the team, Jennifer Poore ended her silence Sunday in the 10th inning of a scoreless Tennessee series-finale. With two outs and the bases loaded, Poore blasted her first career home run and the first grand slam in school history to earn Ole Miss one of its biggest wins of the young season. It was the second act of late-inning heroics in as many weeks for Poore, who drove home the game-tying run in the eighth-inning of the 3-2 win over Creighton. A freshman catcher from San Diego, Poore has started 14 games this year and leads the Rebels with a .312 average and 12 RBI. Behind the plate, she boasts a .977 fielding percentage with five baserunners caught stealing, and an SEC-high three pickoffs.
HUGHES SETS CONSECUTIVE WINS RECORD
Jennifer Hughes continues to break records and baffle opposing batters. The senior from Missouri City, Texas tossed shutouts over Southeast Missouri and Tennessee last week, allowing only five hits in 16 innings. She also set a new Ole Miss record for consecutive winning decisions with her sixth straight win. While nursing a stomach virus, Hughes limited the Lady Vols to four hits in the 10-inning victory on Sunday. On Tuesday, she tossed her first career one-hitter in the mercy-ruled, six-inning win over SEMO. Earlier in the year, she broke the Ole Miss single-game strikeout record with 14 against Creighton. After struggling through her first two starts of the year, Hughes has gone 6-0 with an 0.51 ERA since then. She leads the Rebels this season with a 6-2 record, a 1.52 ERA, four shutouts and 57 strikeouts.
LEHOTAK HEATS UP
Fighting injuries all season, Amanda Lehotak busted out of her slump in a big way last week. Her 12-game hitless streak ended in the Southeast Missouri doubleheader with a 3-for-5 day. Lehotak continued her hot bat in the Tennessee series, notching hits in all three games. She picked up two triples last week to take the team-lead in that category and was 5-for-5 in stolen bases. In game one of the Southeast Missouri doubleheader, Lehotak set a new UM single-game record for stolen bases with three. A sophomore from Omaha, Neb., Lehotak has started at shortstop for the Rebels in all but two games this year, and ranks fifth in the SEC in fielding at her position with a .939 percentage. As a freshman, Lehotak led Ole Miss in batting in 2000 with a .286 average.
