Softball Hits Music City for Midweek Clash with Belmont

			OLE MISS (24-9, 5-3 SEC) at BELMONT (19-14, 2-6 OVC) Nashville, Tenn. E.S. Rose Park
Ole Miss Notes • Belmont Notes • SEC Notes

Tuesday, April 2
5 p.m.

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LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss heads to Nashville for a midweek tilt with the Bruins of Belmont. The Rebels are 3-4 in true road games this season.
• The Rebels have never lost to the Bruins, winning each of the 13 games the two sides have played against each other.
• Ole Miss is coming off of a series victory over No. 6 Florida, winning the final two games of the series after falling in a 15-inning marathon in Friday's opener.
• It was the first series win over the Gators for Ole Miss since 2007 and just the third series victory against Florida in program-history.
• Abbey Latham was the hero in Saturday's 8-4 win in extra innings, crushing the third walk off grand slam in the history of Ole Miss softball.
• The 3,492 fans in attendance across the three games against the Gators set a new single-series attendance record at Ole Miss. All three games saw an attendance of more than 1,000 fans, with Friday's mark of 1,371 ranking as the second largest regular season crowd in the history of the Ole Miss Softball Complex.
• Ole Miss is ranked in all three major national polls for the second-consecutive week, ranking 13th in the Softball America Poll and 22nd in the NFCA Coaches Poll and USA Softball Poll.
• The Rebels came in at No. 12 in the most recent NCAA RPI report. Ole Miss was slotted No. 15 in the initial set of rankings, the highest ranking in the initial report in school-history.
• Kylan Becker is currently on an 11-game hitting streak, tied for the sixth-longest in program-history. During the streak, Becker is batting a blistering .553 with 12 runs scored and 10 runs driven in.
• Throwing 10.0 innings in Friday's opener against Florida, Molly Jacobsen ran her scoreless innings streak to 26 frames, the second-longest in program history. Jacobsen owns two of the three longest streaks at Ole Miss, building a run of 23 innings earlier in the season.

SCOUTING REPORT
Belmont is led by third-year head coach Brian Levin, who took over in Nashville after building a Division II powerhouse program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. During his time at UMSL, Levin's Tritons earned four-consecutive NCAA Tournament bids, including a pair of Super Regional berths. Taking over a program that had not won 20 or more games since the turn of the century, Levin has led a turnaround for the Bruin program. Belmont went 35-22, earning a birth in the OVC Tournament, the program's first postseason tournament at the Division I level. Under Levin, Belmont has amassed a 79-61 record with back-to-back winning seasons since 1996 and 1997.
The Bruins are currently 19-15 on the season, owning a 2-6 record through the early parts of OVC play. After running off a five-game winning streak during the middle of March, Belmont has run into a rough patch, having lost six of its last seven games. The Bruins have been successful when playing in Nashville, boasting a 9-3record on their home field.

Among regular starters, sophomore shortstop Elison Ollinger leads Belmont with a .344 average at the plate, though the Iowa native has only taken 32 at-bats. In her light work offensively Ollinger has registered three doubles with one home run, driving in and scoring five runs apiece. Senior outfielder Baylee Cook sits at .330 with five doubles and three homers, scoring a team-high 23 runs and driving in 20 more. Senior outfielder Hayley Baker leads the Bruins with 27 RBIs and 10 doubles, adding four dingers while batting a solid .324. Sophomore pitcher Alicia Veltri is a power threat at the dish, making up for her less than stellar .286 average with a team-best five long balls, driving in 25 runs.

Two pitchers carry a bulk of the workload for Belmont, with junior Brooklin Lee leading the team with 99.2 innings in the circle, registering a 9-6 record in 16 appearances and 15 starts with a 1.90 ERA. In last season's matchup with the Rebels, Lee tossed all six frames for the Bruins, allowing five runs (two earned) on seven hits. Veltri has also seen significant action in the circle, posting a 1.90 ERA in 17 appearances and 16 starts, earning a 9-6 record with 92.1 innings of action.

GATORS BAITED
Playing in an epic series with the Gators, Ole Miss won 2-of-3 games against No. 6 Florida this past weekend to earn just its third series win ever against the Gators and the first since 2007. The Gators gave the Rebels all they had, trotting out ace pitcher Kelly Barnhill for 23.2 innings of action. Ole Miss got the better of the righty flamethrower, tagging Barnhill for 10 runs, becoming the first team in the senior's career to hand her two losses in a series.

The Rebs and Gators tangled in a marathon battle for the ages in Friday's opener, going back and forth with great pitching for 15 innings before Florida won the game on a three-run home run by Kendyl Lindaman. Ole Miss, however, recovered to take the series. Down to their final out in Saturday's matchup, Ole Miss tied the game with a bases-loaded HBP before Abbey Latham launched a walk off grand slam in the eighth. Ole Miss took an early lead in the finale and rode the arms of Brittany Finney and Molly Jacobsen, who stymied the Gators on the way to a 3-1 Rebel victory.

While most of the players for both sides struggled for offense all weekend, Kylan Becker registered seven hits for a .583 average, scoring four runs and driving in three more. Latham left the park twice, finishing the series with a .308 average and six RBIs.

THANK YOU, REBEL NATION!
A big key behind Ole Miss' series victory over the Florida Gators was the electric atmosphere at the Ole Miss Softball Complex. Over the three games, 3,492 packed the stands in Oxford, setting a new single-series attendance record for the Rebels. All three crowds surpassed 1,000 in attendance, with Friday's mark of 1,371 ranking as the second-largest regular season crowd in the history of the complex.

JACOBSEN DOES IT AGAIN
For the second time this season, Molly Jacobsen set the second-longest scoreless innings streak in the history of Ole Miss softball. The lefty ran her streak to 26 frames in Friday's game against Florida before allowing a three-run home run in the 15th to Gator slugger Kendyl Lindaman. Earlier in the season, the Iowa native registered 23-straight innings without allowing a run to score. Only Mary Jane Callahan has ever had a longer streak, posting 29-consecutive scoreless frames in 2006.

MIAMI HEAT
Having reached safely in 31 of 33 games, including at least one hit in 28 contests, it's no surprise that Kylan Becker has had a number of hot streaks this season. The Miami native is on another one entering Tuesday's game, having posted a base knock in 11-consecutive games, tied for the sixth-longest in program-history. During the 11-game stretch, the senior is batting .553 with 12 runs scored and 10 runs driven in, adding in four walks for a .595 OBP. Becker currently ranks third in the SEC with a .486 batting average, hitting .520 in SEC play.

MOVING ON UP
For a second-consecutive week, Ole Miss is a consensus ranked team in all three of the major national polls, moving up in each set of rankings. The Rebels are slotted at No. 13 in the Softball America Poll, two spots up from their No. 15 ranking last week. Ole Miss moved up one and two places respectively in the USA Softball Poll and NFCA Coaches Poll, coming in at No. 22 in both.

REBS IN THE RPI
Ole Miss moved up two more spots in the latest NCAA RPI report, sliding in at No. 12. Ole Miss owns eight wins over teams ranked in the top-30 (No. 8 Minnesota, No. 9 Florida, No. 13 Oklahoma State, No. 23 Arkansas, No. 26 South Carolina), while seven of the Rebels' nine losses have come against teams ranked in the top-30 (No. 3 UCLA, No. 7 Texas, No. 9 Florida, No. 19 Tulsa, No. 23 Arkansas, No. 25 Boise State).

For all Ole Miss softball news and information, go to OleMissSports.com and follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissSoftball, on Facebook at Ole MissSoftball and on Instagram at Instagram.com/olemisssoftball. Fans can also follow head coach Mike Smith on Twitter at @msmithsb16.

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Players Mentioned

Kylan Becker

Brittany Finney

Molly Jacobsen

Abbey Latham

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