The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Travel To Mississippi Valley State Wednesday
4/28/2015 | Softball
OXFORD, Miss. -- The Ole Miss softball team hits the road Wednesday to take on Mississippi Valley State with a chance to do something the program has only done once before in program history -- hit the 30-win mark in a season.
Ole Miss posted a 30-win season in 2005, the first winning season in program history and the current record for wins in a year.
The Rebels and Mississippi Valley State will take the field for a 6 p.m. first pitch in Itta Bena, Mississippi.
The win total isn't the only record on the line Wednesday night. The Rebels also have a chance to complete the rewriting of the offensive record book that has been underway this season in the first year under the leadership of head coach Mike Smith. Ole Miss needs three doubles to set a new program mark for doubles in a season. It's the last offensive record to not have been broken by Ole Miss in 2015.
Ole Miss has already set new marks in a season for hits (402), runs scored (282), RBI (254), stolen bases (82), triples (13) and walks (156). The Rebels currently have 60 doubles this season, two shy of the record set in 1997. Ole Miss is also on pace to set the record for batting average in a season, hitting at a .308 clip to this point in the schedule.
The Rebels are coming off a 3-2 performance last week, posting a doubleheader sweep of Alcorn State in the midweek before picking up a win over South Carolina in a three-game series with the Gamecocks.
A trio of Rebels pace the Ole Miss offense at the top of the lineup with Elantra Cox, Alex Schneider and Miranda Strother setting the tone for the squad in 2015.
Cox leads the Rebels in steals, going 28-for-36 in steal attempts this season, and is second on the single-season list. She needs six more steals to set a new mark for steals in a season. As the leadoff hitter, she is a vital cog in the offense with a .374 batting average and is third on the team in runs scored with 32.
Schneider is the team leader in runs scored with 36 to date. She also is tied for the team lead in home runs with eight and paces the team with 22 walks this season. The freshman has also added 21 RBI as the cleanup hitter this season.
Strother paces the team with a .393 batting average and is tops on the squad in RBI with 35 from the three-hole in the offensive lineup. She is also second on the team with 33 runs scored and has notched 20 walks to post a team-leading .476 on base percentage. Strother also has six home runs on the season.
The Rebels will continue to play on the road following the contest at Mississippi Valley State, traveling to face No. 25 Texas A&M in a three-game series over the weekend. The series with the Aggies will close out the regular season and establish final seeding for the Rebels in the Southeastern Conference Tournament next week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
