The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Colorado State
Softball Faces Five-Game Slate South of the Border
2/12/2020 | Softball
Ole Miss Takes on Tough Field in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
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PUERTO VALLARTA COLLEGE CHALLENGE Feb. 13-15 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Nancy Almaraz Stadium |
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| Ole Miss Notes (PDF) • Colorado State Notes (PDF) • Utah Notes (PDF) California Baptist Notes (PDF) • Texas Notes (PDF) • SEC Notes (PDF) • Tournament Central Page |
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| Thursday, Feb. 13 Colorado State | Utah 6 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. |
Friday, Feb. 14 California Baptist 12:30 p.m. |
Saturday, Feb. 15 Team Mexico | Texas 3 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. |
| Game One: Watch • Live Stats Game Two: Watch • Live Stats |
Watch • Live Stats | Game One: Watch • Live Stats Game Two: Watch • Live Stats |
LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss continues the 2020 season at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The Rebels will play five games in all: four NCAA matchups with Colorado State, Utah, California Baptist and Texas as well as an exhibition against the Mexican National Team.
• All games at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge will be available for streaming through FloSoftball.
• It will be the second time Ole Miss competes south of the border at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge. The Rebels also competed in the tournament in 2018, winning the tournament championship.
• En route to the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge Championship in 2018, Ole Miss won three of four games, including a victory over 2020 opponent Texas as well as No. 3 Oregon.
• The Rebels opened the 2020 season last week at the NFCA D1 Leadoff Classic. Ole Miss lost all five of its games in Clearwater, Florida, falling to Louisville, NC State, Illinois, Notre Dame and Liberty.
• Sophomore Mikayla Allee had a big week at the plate, posting a .400 batting average with three runs scored and one RBI. Allee was named to the NFCA D1 Leadoff Classic All-Tournament Team.
• Freshman Paige Smith provided some clutch hitting for the Rebs, driving in four of Ole Miss' 12 total runs scored over the weekend.
• Junior Anna Borgen was the most consistent pitcher in the circle for the Rebels, recording 4.2 scoreless innings in relief while allowing just three hits and striking out six batters.
• Ole Miss returns 17 players from last season's roster, including Second Team All-SEC pitcher Molly Jacobsen, SEC All-Freshman Team outfielder Tate Whitley and single season RBI record holder Abbey Latham.
• The Rebels also add a group of seven talented newcomers, including a trio of FloSofball Hot 100 recruits in Paige Smith, Nyomi Jones and Mac Barbara.
SCOUTING REPORT
Colorado State
Jen Fisher is in her 10th season at Colorado State in 2020, having led the Rams to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003 a season ago. After claiming the 2019 Mountain West regular season championship, Fisher was named the league's coach of the year for the second time in her career at CSU, having earned the laurel after her second season in charge of the Ram program in 2012.
The Rams are off to a 4-1 start to the season, having defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Maryland, Lamar and Wichita State at the Texas Classic in Austin. CSU's lone defeat came to the hands of tournament host No. 6 Texas, a 3-12 loss in five innings.
Senior third baseman Corina Gamboa was hot at the plate in the Lone Star State, batting .429 four doubles, four RBIs and four runs scored. Sophomore infielder Kaitlyn Cook was also productive, recording a .375 average, crossing the plate three times. Freshman Danielle Serna picked up the win in two of the Rams' four wins on the weekend, posting a 1.35 ERA with six strikeouts in 10.1 innings. Serna struggled with command, though, issuing 10 free passes. Senior Jessica Jarecki pitched 9.2 innings over the weekend, earning a 3.62 ERA with five earned runs on nine hits and five walks, striking out 10.
Utah
The Utes have been led by head coach Amy Hogue for the past 10 seasons, having reached back-to-back NCAA Super Regionals in 2016 and 2017. A former Utah player, Hogue has amassed a record of 302-245-1 in Salt Lake City.
The Utes are prefect through five games in 2020, defeating No. 14 Northwestern, Western Michigan, Portland State, Kansas and Seattle at the Kajikawa Classic. The ranked win over Northwestern is already half of the total ranked victories for Utah in 2019.
Senior Alyssa Barrera tore it up in Tempe, Arizona, racking up a .583 average with a pair of homers, six RBIs and four runs scored. Redshirt-freshman outfielder Haley Denning was also an extremely tough out, batting .455 with four runs scored. Sophomore righty Sydney Sandez worked a bulk of the load in the circle, pitching 21.1 innings and posting a 4-0 record, a 1.27 ERA and 15 strikeouts to no walks. Freshman Mary Beth Feldman also tossed 9.2 frames, recording a 1.86 ERA and eight strikeouts.
California Baptist
Bill Baber is in his ninth season as the head coach at California Baptist, leading the Lancers from the NAIA level to NCAA Division II before moving up to Division I last season. He holds a career 303-120 record at CBU.
CBU went 2-3 to start the season at the Norcal Kickoff in Davis and Sacramento, California. The Lancers defeated Saint Mary's and UC Santa Barbara, falling to UC Davis, Sacramento State and Idaho State.
Junior shortstop Abby Robertson paces the team with a .400 batting average, scoring a quarter of CBU's 28 runs. Sophomore middle infielder Molly Kolander has added in a pair of runs and RBIs to go with her .385 average, while senior first baseman Mackenzie Budinger leads the team with six runs driven in. Senior Kerisa Viramontes has thrown 17.2 innings over three appearances and two starts, posting a 1-2 record with a 3.17 ERA. In 9.2 innings of work junior Giana Lopez has posted an 11.59 ERA.
Texas
In its second season under longtime Oregon head coach Mike White, Texas has almost immediately risen back to one of the premier powerhouses of college softball. After leading the Ducks to five Women's College World Series trips in nine years, White and the Longhorns went 46-17 on the way to a Super Regional in 2019.
The Longhorns are 6-0 after opening weekend, taking down Wichita State a pair of times as well as Maryland, Lamar, Colorado State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at the Texas Classic. Over the six games, Texas outscored its opponents 78-6, with none of the games lasting past five innings.
Arguably nobody had a better first week of the season at the plate than senior pitcher Miranda Elish. The former Oregon standout batted .818 with four homers and three doubles among her nine hits, tallying an astonishing 17 RBIs. Meanwhile, four other players (Courtney Day, Janae Jefferson, Shannon Rhodes and Kaitlyn Washington) batted over .600. In the circle, Elish and sophomore Shealyn O'Leary each pitched 10.0 innings. Elish posted a 1.40 ERA with 18 strikeouts in two wins, while O'Leary registered a 0.70 ERA with 11 strikeouts in her pair of victories.
SOPHOMORE SURGE
A year after starting out her collegiate career on an 0-for-24 hitless drought at the plate, Ole Miss sophomore Mikayla Allee came out of the gates swinging at the NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic to kickoff the 2020 season. Allee was the most productive Rebel at the dish, posting a .400 average on 6-for-15 hitting with three runs scored and an RBI. Despite struggling with her batting average for most of the year in 2019, Allee remained one of the most consistent players on the team in terms of on-base percentage, finishing the year at .405 to rank third. That continued on opening weekend, with Allee also drawing three walks and wearing a couple of pitches to register a .550 OBP. For her efforts, Allee was named to All-Tournament Team.
FAILING TO CASH IN
One of the keys to the slow start for Ole Miss at the NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic was the absence of timely hitting in key situations. On the whole, the offensive numbers for the Rebels were respectable with a .261 team batting average and a .344 OBP. However, Ole Miss left 43 players on base, ultimately generating just 12 runs on 10 runs batted in.
BORGEN'S BREAKTHROUGH
A bright spot in the opening weekend was the pitching performance out of the bullpen from junior lefty Anna Borgen. Borgen entered in the third inning against Illinois and shut the Illini down through the rest of the game. The Fighting Illini managed just three runs over 4.2 scoreless innings from Borgen, who spun the ball to the tune of six strikeouts, a career high for the Heath, Texas, native.
TOUGH SLEDDING
When you play in the nation's premier softball conference, a challenging slate of games in a given season is pretty much par for the course. However, Ole Miss has a particularly daunting schedule on its hands in 2020, facing off against the best talent the country has to offer both in and out of league play. Ole Miss will take on 15 NCAA Tournament teams from 2019 throughout the season, battling against Alabama, Auburn, Colorado State, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Louisville, LSU, Missouri, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M. Among those squads, six (Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Oklahoma State, Texas) advanced to Super Regionals, while Alabama, Florida and Oklahoma State all reached the Women's College World Series.
FRESH BLOOD
While the bulk of Ole Miss roster from the 2019 season returns in 2020, there are still plenty of fresh faces around the Ole Miss Softball Complex in the form of a nearly entirely new coaching staff. Interim head coach Ruben Felix is the lone returning Rebel coach from a season ago, while Ole Miss welcomes new pitching coach Kim Schuette, assistant coach Damon Haecker, volunteer assistant coach Kylan Becker and coordinator of operations Brian Thomas.
Schuette joined the Rebel staff following a decorated head coaching career at her alma mater, Eastern Illionois, as well as Big Ten program Purdue. With more than 400 wins over the course of her 11 years as a head coach, Schuette is a two-time Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year, having guided the Panthers to the OVC regular season crown in both 2011 and 2013. She also helped mold a pair of OVC Pitcher of the Year winners in Amber May (2011) and Hanna Mennega (2013) and is EIU's all-time wins leader.
Haecker joins the Rebel coaching staff not far removed from a standout career as a baseball player at fellow SEC member Auburn. A true jack-of-all-trades during his college career, Haecker started 168 games at Auburn, competing at shortstop, second base, third base, catcher, left field and right field. He started every game of his freshman and sophomore years and cracked the starting lineup in all four opening days at four different positions. Following his playing career, Haecker picked up experience in coaching at Diamond Impact, a travel team in Auburn, before becoming a varsity assistant coach for both baseball and football at Lee Scott Academy.
A name littered throughout the Ole Miss record books, Becker joins Felix's staff after putting together arguably the finest career ever seen in a Rebel softball uniform. Ole Miss' only First Team All-American, having twice received the honor, Becker helped carve the way to both of the Rebels' NCAA Regional Championships in the last three years, including scoring the walk-off winner against Louisiana in 2019. Having played professionally for Scrap Yard Fast Pitch this summer, Becker begins her first season in the coaching ranks.
Thomas also begins his first season in Oxford as Ole Miss' coordinator of operations, often one of the unsung heroes of any program. He comes to Ole Miss after serving in a similar role the past two seasons for the baseball team at Florida Atlantic. A native of Gainesville, Florida, Thomas graduated from the University of Florida and spent time as a pitching coach for Gainesville High School.
EXPERIENCE ABOUNDS
Despite having big shoes to fill in the absence of senior leaders Kylan Becker and Brittany Finney, Ole Miss has a plethora of experience returning to a veteran laden roster in 2020. In the field, the Rebels return 76.0 percent of appearances from the 2019 campaign, including 71.1 percent of starts. What's more, the Rebs return the bulk of production in virtually every offensive category, including runs (65.5%), hits (60.0%), extra-base hits (67.7%), runs batted in (67.3%) and walks (65.7%). Meanwhile, in the circle, Ole Miss returns four of five pitchers who saw action a season ago. Led by Second Team All-SEC lefty Molly Jacobsen, the Rebels return the majority of 2019's appearances (66.3%), starts (60.7%), innings pitched (63.4%), wins (57.5%), complete games (56.5%) and strikeouts (64.2%).
GOOD LUCK WITH THE LEFTY
One of the keys to success for Ole Miss in the upcoming season is whether senior pitcher Molly Jacobsen can recapture the magic she was able to create during her first season in Oxford a year ago. Breaking onto the scene in the SEC, the lefty recorded not one but two of the three longest scoreless innings streaks in the history of Ole Miss softball. After running off a run of 23 scoreless frames early in the season, Jacobsen stymied opposing batters for 26 innings in the heart of the SEC schedule before allowing a home run to Florida slugger Kendyl Lindaman. Only Mary Jane Callahan has ever had a longer streak, posting 29-consecutive scoreless frames in 2006.
RUN AT YOUR OWN RISK
Over the past two seasons, senior catcher Autumn Gillespie has struck fear in the eyes of opposing base stealers. Since Gillespie's arrival at Ole Miss in 2018, only two players (Reagan Dykes - Alabama, Kayla Green - Arkansas) have gunned down more would-be base stealers than the Redlands, California, native. In two seasons, Gillespie has caught 22 runners attempting to swipe an extra base, tied for third most in the league with Mia Davidson of Mississippi State and Mahlena O'Neal of Georgia. However, none have been nearly as efficient as Gillespie, who has thrown out 51.2 percent of the runners daring enough to attempt to run on her, with Green the next closest at just 40.0 percent.
TOP FRESHMEN TRIO
Adding to a stacked lineup of experienced returners, Ole Miss has added a talented crop of seven newcomers to the 2020 roster, including three true freshmen ranked in FloSoftball's Hot 100 for the 2019 recruiting class. The three top-100 recruits are the most in a single class for Ole Miss.
Infielder Paige Smith comes in as the top ranked freshman for the Rebels, ranking No. 13 by FloSoftball. Smith, who was named Softball America's Travel Ball Player of the Year for 2019, helped lead Norco High School to a National Championship as well as the CIF State Title last season after a pair of national runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2017. A two-time All-American, Smith batted .420 as a senior with 14 extra-base hits and 45 runs driven in.
Nyomi Jones, an outfielder out of Mater Dei High School in California, slid in at No. 32 in FloSoftball's rankings. A two-time CIF All-State honoree in the Golden State, Jones helped MDHS to the state championship her freshman season. Heating up at the plate as an upperclassman, Jones hit .498 during her senior campaign, registering 23 steals.
The final Top-100 recruit for Ole Miss, Mac Barbara was tabbed No. 70 in the nation by FloSoftball. A power-hitting first baseman and catcher, Barbara split her time between Long Beach Wilson High School and St. Joseph High School in Southern California. A First Team All-CIF selection as a junior, Barbara recorded a .554 average that season with 42 RBIs, leading the state with 11 home runs. The following year, Barbara remained strong at the dish with a .455 average, nine homers, six doubles and 24 RBIs.
OLE MISS PICKED 8TH IN PRESEASON SEC POLL
After registering a program-record fifth place finish in the SEC standings, Ole Miss was picked 8th in the 2020 Preseason SEC Softball Poll. However, in four of the past five seasons Ole Miss has outperformed its projection in the conference preseason rankings after being pegged 12th a year ago.
2020 SEC PRESEASON COACHES' POLL
Team
1. Alabama 8. Ole Miss
2. Tennessee 9. South Carolina
3. LSU 10. Missouri
4. Kentucky 11. Auburn
5. Florida T12. Mississippi State
6. Georgia T12. Texas A&M
7. Arkansas
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.
