The University of Mississippi Athletics
This Week in Ole Miss Softball
4/3/2001 | Softball
UPCOMING SCHEDULE:
Southern Miss doubleheader (Oxford, Miss.)
Florida series (Gainesville, Fla.)
Wednesday, Apr. 4
vs. Southern Miss [DH], 5 & 7 p.m.
Satuday, Apr. 7
at Florida [DH], 2 & 4 p.m. (CT)
Sunday, Apr. 8
at Florida, 11 a.m.
THIS WEEK'S AGENDA
Ole Miss (16-24, 3-9 SEC) hosts Southern Miss in a midweek doubleheader before returning to Southeastern Conference play this weekend at Florida. The USM twin bill closes out an eight-game homestand for the Rebels, who ended a seven-game losing skid Sunday in the Auburn finale. Ole Miss will be in search of its first SEC series win of the 2001 season against the Gators.
Southern Miss (24-13, 4-2 CUSA) rolls in as winners of 10 of its last 13. Junior RHP Felicia Gonzales (14-6) recently ended a seven-game winning streak, and for the season, owns nine shutouts and four no-hitters. The Golden Eagles are batting .220 as a team, but have 25 home runs to their credit. Six different players have gone deep two or more times, led by Kenya Peters with nine homers to go along with 21 RBI.
Florida (28-14, 8-7 SEC) sits second in the SEC East entering the week. The Gators took two of three at Arkansas last weekend, but have dropped six of their last eight. UF boasts the third best offense in the conference with a .284 team average and 173 runs scored. Freshman Jenilee Garner leads five Gators batting over .300 at .345. Two-time All-SEC first baseman Ashley Boone is hitting .323 with a league-high 13 doubles to go with 23 RBI.
ALL-TIME SERIES
Ole Miss and Southern Miss met for the first time last season, splitting a doubleheader in Hattiesburg. In game one, the Rebels upended the 10th-ranked Eagles, 3-2, in 11 innings on a complete-game, five-hitter by Holly Burris. The in-state foes battled through 10 scoreless innings before Ole Miss posted three runs in the top of the 11th, with two runs coming on a two-out double by Korrie Kashuba. USM took the late game, 6-4, despite a 3-for-4 performance by Amanda Lehotak.
Florida is the only SEC team the Rebels have never triumphed over. The Gators are a flawless 6-0 all-time vs. UM, and swept a doubleheader, 3-2 and 1-0, a year ago in Gainesville. UF won both games on its last at-bat, the second game in the 10th inning. Lehotak hit 4-for-9 in the twin bill.
AUBURN SERIES
After dropping the first two, Ole Miss salvaged the finale of the Auburn series Sunday, 3-2, to end a seven-game losing skid. Ole Miss posted all three runs in the third inning. The Rebels used leadoff singles by Kristi DiMarco and Desiree Layman, who each collected two hits in the game, and a pair of two-out AU fielding errors to take a 3-1 lead. After the Tigers narrowed the gap to one in the fourth, senior Jennifer Hughes made the lead stand, tossing four scoreless innings in relief of starter Holly Burris for the win. Hughes held Auburn to three hits over the final four to end her six-game losing streak.
Saturday's doubleheader lasted seven hours, 45 minutes and resulted in a 4-0 no-hitter by AU hurler Jennifer Pursell in game one, and a 13-7, 10-inning win for Auburn in game two. The twin bill featured a 1:33 rain delay and a four-hour second game that ended at 12:40 a.m.
BURRIS HAS STRONG WEEK
Holly Burris was the Rebel's top offensive force last week, hitting. 333 (6-for-18) with four doubles and six RBI in the Mississippi State and Auburn series. In game two of the AU series, the sophomore LHP/DP single-handedly kept Ole Miss in the fight. Down 4-0 in the first inning, Burris doubled home Amanda Lehotak to open a three-run rally. She tied the game with an RBI-sacrifice fly in the second inning and gave the Rebels the lead with her first career home run in the fifth. She finished the game matching her career highs in hits with three and RBI with four.
A native of Germantown, Tenn., Burris has moved between the mound (11 starts), first base (14) and designated player (23) for Ole Miss this season. At the plate, she is second on the team in RBI with 17, already exceeding her total of 14 from 2000, to go with a .252 batting average. Burris has belted 10 doubles to rank fourth in the SEC and pull within five of the single-season school record. As a pitcher, she is 2-7 with a 4.62 ERA and one shutout.
CUMMINGS HONORED
Jamie Cummings was honored at Saturday's Red-Blue Football Game as the 2001 co-recipient of the seventh annual Eugenia Conner Memorial Award for Achievement. The award was established in honor of the late Eugenia Conner, a four-time All-SEC basketball center for the Rebels from 1981-85. Cummings and UM track standout Brandy Mack earned the accolade based on their exemplification of a true Lady Rebel, with character and leadership both on and off the field of competition.
A senior left fielder from Jackson, Miss., Cummings is enjoying the best season of her career. She currently ranks fourth on the team in batting at .254 and already boasts career highs in RBI with 11 and stolen bases with 10. Cummings is one of three Rebels to have started all 40 games, and her defense has earned her All-Tournament honors twice - at the Lobo Diamond Invitational and the Rebel/Easton Invitational.
OVERTIME
Ole Miss has already played eight extra-inning games this year, going 3-5. The Rebels totaled nine extra-inning games for the entire 2000 season. Last week, Ole Miss scrapped with Auburn for 10 innings and Mississippi State for a UM record-tying 11 frames. Lindsay Price went the distance in the MSU game for her second-career 11-inning contest.
Two of the Rebels' three overtime wins ended on home runs - an eighth-inning, two-run blast by Kristi DiMarco to beat Samford 2-0, and a 10th-inning grand slam by Jennifer Poore to knock out Tennessee 4-0. In the other, Ole Miss got by Creighton on an RBI-single by Jamie Cummings in the eighth.
