The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Host First Fall Game Friday Afternoon
10/2/2014 | Softball
OXFORD, Miss. - With one week of fall ball under its belt, the Ole Miss softball team will hit the field Friday afternoon to face-off against some competition as the Rebels host Northwest Mississippi Community College for a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. at the Ole Miss Softball Complex.
It will be the first of three weeks of inter-squad competition for the Rebels as the squad prepares for the 2015 season under first-year head coach Mike Smith. All fall games are open to the public and fans are invited to come out and watch as the Rebels prepare for the upcoming year.
Despite having only a week of practice as a full unit under its belt, Smith and the coaching staff have been pleased with the work put in by the Rebels so far and look forward to the opportunity this weekend to take the field against someone not wearing the Red and Blue of Ole Miss.
"I feel we are heading in a positive direction right now," Smith said. "There will always be a learning curve when putting in a new system, but the team has done a good job. It's about repetition and working hard every day to get better by one percent each day. Once they understand what's expected of them as a softball player and student-athlete, we will be fine.
"We have some things to shore up, but we'll be fine," Smith said. "Now we get a chance to face someone else which always changes the mentality. I'm looking forward to seeing the squad in a different element besides facing off against their own team."
The Rebels took to the field as a team for the first time this past Sunday after spending the first few weeks of the semester working on individual skills and position training. Since that first full-squad practice this past weekend, Ole Miss has also participated in an intra-squad scrimmage as the team begins to implement a new system under the direction of Smith.
"I really like our team speed and with that we have an aggressiveness on the bases," Smith said. "They've really taken to our philosophy. We may get thrown out, but I want to be aggressive in steals and trying to stretch the double into a single. If we see the opportunity we need to take it. They've done a great job of taking that to heart.
"We're starting to put together what we want to see on defense. There are some things to shore up and it will take time, but that's part of things with a new staff. This is the first opportunity we've had as a staff to work with the whole team and do this."
