The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Prepares For Eight-Game Homestand
3/27/2001 | Softball
March 27, 2001
This Week in Ole Miss Softball
UPCOMING SCHEDULE:
Mississippi State series (Oxford, Miss.)
Auburn series (Oxford, Miss.)
Tuesday, Mar. 27
vs. Mississippi State [DH], 5 & 7 p.m. (CT)
Wednesday, Mar. 28
vs. Mississippi State, 5 p.m.
Friday, Mar. 31
vs. Auburn [DH], 5 & 7 p.m.
Saturday, Apr. 1
vs. Auburn, 1 p.m.
THIS WEEK'S AGENDA
Ole Miss (15-19, 2-4 SEC) hosts Mississippi State and Auburn this week in Southeastern Conference play. The Rebels just finished a stretch of 12 games in 11 days, going 4-8, and now begins an eight-game homestand. Ole Miss will be looking to rebound from a 1-2 series loss to Kentucky last weekend in Lexington.
Mississippi State (17-16, 5-4 SEC) is hot off a 3-0 series sweep of Georgia last weekend in Starkville. The Bulldogs have won five of their last seven and are being led offensively by junior Kellie Wilkerson, who is among the SEC leaders in batting average at .407 to go along with eight homers and 20 RBI. Wilkerson has also been a force out of the bullpen with a 3-0 record and four saves.
Auburn (19-14, 2-4 SEC) slides into the week, having lost all three games of its SEC home series with Arkansas last weekend. The Tigers have dropped six of their last eight games, but still boast a 6-2 road record this season. AU is batting .285? as a team, led by Ashley Moore's .409 average with six home runs and 23 RBI.
ALL-TIME SERIES
MSU leads the all-time series with Ole Miss, 9-7, but are 3-5 in Oxford. The Bulldogs took three out of four from the Rebels last year in Starkville, winning the first three, 4-3, 7-4 and 3-1, but falling 6-0 in the finale. Four Rebels recorded two hits including Jessica Hamilton, who also scored and drove in a run. Holly Burris held then 21st-ranked State to a season-low three hits in what began a six-game winning streak for the freshman LHP.
Auburn has won 11 of 16 meetings with Ole Miss, including a 4-0 mark in Oxford. However, the Rebels split four games with the Tigers on the Plains in 2000. Jennifer Hughes took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of game one and finished with a three-hit, nine-inning victory, 2-1. AU would answer by taking games two and three, 4-2 and 6-0. Hughes responded by limiting the Tigers to two runs on four hits in a 6-2 finale win. Phyllis Manley batted 3-for-4 with two RBI in the game.
KENTUCKY SERIES
After dominating game one of the Kentucky series, 12-0, Ole Miss dropped games two and three, 9-1 and 7-1, to give UK the series win. The first game saw the Rebels score nine runs in the fifth inning, eight with two outs, in what was UM's biggest offensive inning of the year. The 12 runs tied the second highest single-game total in school history and the most since Apr. 16, 1997, the program's inaugural season.
Four different Rebels notched two or more hits led by sophomore Jessica Hamilton, who hit 3-for-4 with two RBI. Hamilton, Kristi DiMarco and Jennifer Poore each had two hits in the fifth inning alone.
Lindsay Price (5-5) hurled her second career shutout in the five-inning affair, which was ended on the eight-run mercy rule. Price, a sophomore >from Terry, Miss., surrendered only two hits and one walk.
Hamilton and Jamie Cummings each hit .500 (4-for-8) with a double in the series.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI DOUBLEHEADER
Ole Miss split a home doubleheader with Southeast Missouri last Wednesday, dropping game one 42 but rebounding to take game two 80. Jennifer Poore hit 4for7 with three RBI in the twin bill to lead the Rebels.
The second game of the night saw Ole Miss put up six runs in the fourth inning. Four straight RBIsingles by Phyllis Manley, Britte Hardy, Amanda Lehotak and Kristi DiMarco were followed by a Poore tworun double. Jamie Cummings and Jessica Hamilton each collected a pair of singles as Ole Miss outhit Southeast 123.
Holly Burris tossed her first shutout of the 2001 season in limiting SEMO to three hits over five innings. Burris also stole home in a fifthinning double steal to end the game on the eightrun mercy rule.
In the early game, the Otahkians (59) broke up a scoreless game with four runs in the fifth inning. Jenny Doehring, who also picked up the win on the mound, drove in three runs with a basesloaded triple.
HAMILTON HEATS UP
No one has swung a hotter bat over the last two weeks than Jessica "Stormy" Hamilton, batting .483 with only two strikeouts over her last 13 games. She had a sixgame hitting streak during that stretch and raised her average 133 points.
A sophomore outfielder from Nashville, Hamilton has fought through injuries her first two years with the Rebels. She earned a medical redshirt for the 1999 season after suffering a broken leg in the 13th game of the year. In 2000, Hamilton batted .264 in 30 starts but saw her season end on May 31 with a hurt shoulder. This season, she has avoided the injury bug and garnered the majority of the starts in right field, posting a .364 average with four RBI. For her career, Hamilton boasts a .311 batting average.
POORE CONTINUES HOT HITTING
Jennifer Poore continues to lead the Rebels at the plate. The freshman from San Diego tops the squad in average (.357), doubles (7), RBI (17), multiple-hit games (9) and multiple-RBI games (4). She drove in the game-tying run in the eighth inning against Creighton and the game-winners against Texas Tech as well as Tennessee, where she blasted the first grand slam in school history to win the game in the 10th. Poore was also named to the Capital Classic AllTournament Team after hitting .381 (8for21) with two RBI and a teamhigh four stolen bases.
Behind the plate, Poore tops the SEC in runners picked off with four. She has also seen action this season at designated player and made her first start at first base in game two of the Southeast Missouri doubleheader.
SHUTOUTS
Eight of the Rebels' last 10 wins have been shutouts. After only two shutouts in her first two years at Ole Miss, senior Jennifer Hughes has hurled five this season alone, including a one-hitter against Southeast Missouri on Mar. 6. Sophomore Lindsay Price has a pair of shutouts in 2001 - most recently a two-hitter in game one of the Tennessee series. Sophomore Holly Burris held SEMO scoreless on Mar. 21, and has five shutouts for her career.
