The University of Mississippi Athletics
No. 20 Rebels Host No. 13 Alabama; New Weekend Schedule
4/28/2017 | Softball
Games 49-51
No. 13 Alabama (38-11, 10-7 SEC) at No. 20 Ole Miss (32-16, 6-12 SEC)
Dates: April 29 & May 1, 2017
First Pitch: Sat: 2/6 p.m. | Mon: 6 p.m.
Location: Oxford, Miss.
Venue: Ole Miss Softball Complex (1,000)
TV: Sat: SECN+ (G1) | Sat: SECN+ (G2) | Mon: SEC Network
Sat: Seth Austin (pxp) | Brittany McKinney (analyst)
Mon: Mark Neeley (pxp) | Jenny Dalton-Hill (analyst)
Mobile: ESPN App
Live stats: OleMissSports.comSeries: Alabama leads 57-2
Last Series: March 6-8, 2015
No. 4 Alabama swept 3-0
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Twitter Updates: @OleMissSoftball
PROMOTIONS
Saturday, April 29
- Senior Day activities (pregame of game one)
- FREE crawfish for 2 p.m. game
- 90s Night (game two)
- FREE hat giveaway to first 500 fans
Monday, May 1
- FREE Chick-fil-A to first 100 students in outfield
LEADING OFF
- With just two weeks left in the regular season, No. 20 Ole Miss hosts No. 13 Alabama for the first meeting in two years.
- The Rebels head into weekend play ninth in the SEC standings at 6-12, while the Crimson Tide is fifth at 10-7.
- Just five wins separate the fifth through 10th place teams, with all 13 in a tight battle for the 12 spots in the SEC Tournament.
- Ole Miss last defeated Alabama back in 2005, one of only two wins over the Crimson Tide all-time.
- The weekend matchup will feature two top-27 teams in the RPI with Alabama at No. 14 and Ole Miss at No. 27.
- The Rebels and Crimson Tide last met in 2015 in Tuscaloosa, with the last meeting in Oxford coming in 2014.
- In the last three weekends of SEC play, Ole Miss has claimed four wins over teams that played in the 2016 WCWS (one at Auburn, three over LSU). By season's end, the Rebels will have played 10 games against WCWS participants from last year.
- At No. 27 in the latest RPI, that mark officially ties the school record for highest RPI, set just last season in the final report.
- For the second-straight season, the Rebels are on pace to break the single-season attendance record with four home games left.
- Out of six home games this month, three have resulted in walk-off wins (twice in the LSU series, Wednesday vs. JSU).
- Ole Miss has eight wins over top-25 teams this season and six over top-25 RPI programs.
- In the last two SEC home series, the Rebels are 5-1 allowing only three earned runs with three shutouts.
- With 18 victories in Oxford this year, the Rebels are three away from tying the school record for home wins (21).
- Prior to Saturday's game Ole Miss will honor its four seniors, Raven Campos, Dakota Matiko, Courtney Syrett, and Miranda Strother. In the last four years, the Rebels have won 125 games, including 73 in the last two seasons alone.
- Two Rebels are on the brink of breaking two Ole Miss career records, as Strother needs just one run to become the all-time leader in career runs, while Elantra Cox is three steals from becoming the all-time steals leader.
- Cox is also nearing two single-season record marks, just five hits off the hits record and four runs from the runs record. She holds the nation's 12th-best average (.447) and is seventh nationally in hits (72).
- Junior RHP Kaitlin Lee is up to fifth in single-season wins (14), and is 4-0 with a 0.66 ERA in the last two SEC home series. She leads the SEC in innings pitched (162.1), and is 27th nationally with six shutouts. She's also second in the league in walks allowed per seven innings (1.16), the second-best mark in the SEC.
- Sophomore OF Kylan Becker is the team's leading hitter in SEC play with a .333 clip, the 12th-best average in the league. She also ranks tied for sixth in the league with five steals in conference action. Her 17 total multi-hit games rank second on the team.
- Strother has recorded three walk-off hits for the Rebels this season, all three of which have come in April.
- The Rebels continue to maintain a strong defense with a .974 fielding percentage, 20th-best in the NCAA and 5th in the SEC.
- Ole Miss has scored first in 30 games this season, and is 27-3 in those contests, and 14-1 when scoring in the first inning.
SCOUTING REPORT
No. 13 Alabama heads into weekend play 38-11 overall and 10-7 in SEC action. The Crimson Tide are 6-4 in their last 10 games, coming off a midweek victory at Samford Tuesday. Led by 19th year head coach Patrick Murphy, Alabama is No. 14 in this week's RPI and No. 13/14 in the two major polls (NFCA, USA Softball). The Crimson Tide have won four of their six SEC series thus far, sweeping No. 24 Arkansas back in early March, before taking 2-of-3 over Mississippi State and South Carolina. Missouri claimed a series win in Columbia back in early April, before Alabama took a pair of games from No. 8 LSU. No. 14 Tennessee won the first two games of their most recent SEC series, before weather cancelled game three. Alabama most recently hosted No. 9 Washington last weekend and dropped two games, 3-2 and 3-0.
The pitching staff is one of the nation's leaders in nearly in every pitching category, led by the trio of Sydney Littlejohn, Alexis Osorio and Madi Moore. They are second in the SEC with 411 strikeouts, one of only two teams with over 300 this season. They also rank second in opposing batting average (.166) and hits allowed (189), and are third in ERA (1.54), third best in the league and 10th-best in the country. Osorio leads the league and is seventh nationally with 233 strikeouts, one of only two SEC pitchers with 200-plus. She's allowing just 3.10 hits per seven innings, second-best in the country, and has seven shutouts, third-most in the league. Her 18 wins lead the team and are fourth-most in the league. Littlejohn has been just as effective, ranking fourth in the conference with 152 strikeouts, and fifth in the SEC with a 1.05 ERA. She's 14-4 in 20 starts with six shutouts, and has held opponents to a .180 average. Moore has limited action with 50.2 innings pitched and a 6-1 record with a 3.32 ERA.
With one of the stronger pitching staffs in the league, Alabama ranks in the bottom half of most offensive categories. The .293 team average is seventh in the league, and they are aso sixth in the league in on-base percentage (.404), 10th in slugging (.428) and runs scored (237), ninth in hits (354) and RBI (214), and 12th in total bases (517). Demi Turner leads the charge with a .387 average, eighth-best in the league, and is the toughest player in the league to strikeout with only one K per 28 at-bats. Peyton Grantham is hitting .279, but leads the team with seven home runs and 39 RBI. Bailey Hemphill is one of the nation's leaders in walks with 46, while Elissa Brown has a team-high 23 steals in 26 attempts.
VS. ALABAMA
March 8, 2015 รขโฌยข No. 4 Alabama 10, Ole Miss 0: The Rebels couldn't solve the pitching rotation of the Crimson Tide on Sunday as Ole Miss fell to fourth-ranked Alabama by a score of 10-0 in the series finale of the opening weekend of Southeastern Conference play.
Madi Osias took the loss for the Rebels, allowing 10 runs - five of them earned - on nine hits with a walk and three strikeouts in 1.2 innings of work. Senior Lauren Lindsey entered the game in the second to relieve Osias and worked the final 2.1 innings with three walks and one hit.
Sydney Littlejohn picked up the win for the Crimson Tide, striking out six through the 5.0 innings and not allowing a hit as she tossed a perfect game.
Lindsey held the Crimson Tide off the board the rest of the way, but the Rebels couldn't find an answer offensively as Alabama picked up the 10-0 victory.
THE HOME STRETCH IS THE TOUGHEST...
Ever since the start of SEC play, Ole Miss has faced one of the toughest schedules of any team in the league, ranking in the top five in future strength of schedule. Now with seven games left in the regular season, the Rebels have the NCAA's ninth-toughest schedule remaining. The NCAA ranks teams' strength of schedules (past and future) based on opponent records, and Ole Miss' remaining opponents are 89-57 with an average RPI of 47. Two of the final three opponents have an RPI of of 31 or better, with Alabama at No. 14, Southern Miss at No. 97, and Missouri at No. 31.
TRUE MEANING OF UTILITY PLAYER
Paige McKinney, a junior with 142 games played in her career, has embraced the meaning of a utility player in 2017. She has started at five different positions defensively, and at some point has played every position on the field except pitcher and catcher. 16 of her starts have come at shortstop, five at at second base, and two at first, while the other two have come in the outfield (RF - 1, LF - 1). She's been effective, ranking fourth on the team with 12 steals and has yet to be thrown out. In 16 of her 24 starts, she's reached safely at least once, and has tallied either a steal or hit in 19 games.
REBELS UP TO NO. 27 IN RPI
After playing the No. 1 team in Florida last weekend, the Rebels jumped up to No. 27 in the latest RPI rankings, which ties for the highest mark in school history. Ole Miss has six wins over top-25 RPI teams in 2017, including four in the last three weekends of SEC play alone. The Rebels have an average RPI loss of 20th, with the 10th-ranked strength of schedule according to the report. Ole Miss is one of 11 SEC teams in the top-30, as all 13 league schools are in the top 32.
OLE MISS MAINTAINS TOP 25 RANKING
Ole Miss fell to No. 20/21 in this week's two national polls, at No. 20 in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches' Poll, and 21st in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25. The Rebels have been ranked in the NFCA Coaches poll in nine-straight weeks, and are one of 10 SEC teams in this week's top 25, while the other three are all receiving votes.
REBELS AGAINST THE 2016 WCWS FIELD
Within a three week stretch, Ole Miss will have faced three teams from the 2016 Women's College World Series, and four total in 2017 (Oklahoma, Auburn, LSU, Alabama). The Rebels have had good outings thus far against the two programs who played for the 2016 national title (Oklahoma, Auburn), posting a combined 20 runs in four games. In two games against No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Auburn, Ole Miss scored eight and 10 runs, respectively, the most any team has scored on those two clubs all season. In the last four weeks alone, the Rebels have won four games against teams from last year's WCWS (Auburn, LSU).
REBELS CHASING ATTENDANCE RECORD ... AGAIN
The Rebels are once again close to breaking the attendance record with four home games left. Last season Ole Miss completely shattered the previous single-season record with a cumulative attendance of 13,506, 27th-best in the country. This season, the Rebels are at 11,500-plus, within close range of breaking the record yet again. In terms of single-game crowds, Ole Miss has three in 2017 that rank in the top-10 all-time, including 1,049 fans that saw the Rebels defeat No. 11 LSU on April 15, the sixth-largest crowd in school history. 978 fans were in attendance for the win over Mississippi State (March 22), the seventh-largest crowd all-time. Also in the LSU series, the doubleheader attendance of 839 checks in as the ninth-best in single-game history.
ON DECK
Following the Alabama series, Ole Miss hosts in-state foe Southern Miss Wednesday night at 6 p.m. on SEC Network in the home finale.
For all Ole Miss Softball news and information, go to OleMissSports.com and follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissSoftball, on Facebook at Ole Miss Softball and on Instagram at Instagram.com/olemisssoftball. Fans can also follow head coach Mike Smith on Twitter at @msmithsb16. Additionally fans can get a behind the scenes look at Ole Miss Athletics on Snapchat under the handle, @WeAreOleMiss.
