Softball Returns Home for Tuesday Date With North Alabama

OLE MISS (5-10)
vs. NORTH ALABAMA (9-4)
Oxford, Miss.
Ole Miss Softball Complex (1,000)

Tuesday, Feb. 25
6 p.m.

Live Stats

PROMOTIONS
• $1 Hot Dogs

LEADING OFF
• Tuesday's game will not feature a live broadcast. However, live stats will be be available through OleMissSports.com.
• The contest was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but was moved up a day due to inclement forecasted weather.
• Ole Miss will play in front of its home crowd for the second time in 2020 after blasting Mississippi Valley State 11-0 in five innings in the home opener last Wednesday night.
• The Rebels are coming off of a successful weekend at the Blazer Classic in Birmingham, Alabama. Ole Miss posted a 3-2 record at the classic, sweeping a pair of meetings with the host Blazers and upsetting No. 14 Oklahoma State.
• Autumn Gillespie was on fire during the weekend, registering seven hits (five for extra bases) with eight runs scored, four RBIs and six walks.
• Jessica Puk led the Rebels with six RBIs over the weekend, while Abbey Latham chipped in five more. Both Puk and Latham clobbered a pair of home runs at Mary Bowers Field.
• Ole Miss scored 31 runs over the five games in Birmingham after totalling 32 runs over the first 10 games of the season.
• The Rebels will be taking on North Alabama in an official game for the first time ever. The Lions made the move up to Division I from Division II a year ago, joining the Atlantic Sun Conference. Ole Miss and UNA squared off in an exhbition matchup this past fall.

SCOUTING REPORT
Ashley Cozart is in her seventh season as the head coach at North Alabama after being named the sixth head coach in program history in 2013. With only two trips to the NCAA Tournament in school history prior to her arrival, Cozart guided the Lions to five consecutive tournament berths in her first five seasons, including the 2016 NCAA Division II National Championship. Cozart was at the helm for UNA's transition to Division I in 2019, with the Lions finishing fourth in the ASUN with a 26-20 overall record.

North Alabama is currently 9-4 on the year, proving to be a streaky team through the first three weeks of the season. UNA won its first five games with three victories over Tennessee State and a pair of wins against Alcorn State. The Lions then faltered at the Mississippi State hosted Bulldog Kickoff Classic, falling in four consecutive games, two each against MSU and Tulsa. Since, the Lions have rebounded to win four in a row, sweeping two games apiece with Howard and Murray State.

Sophomore outfielder Lexie Harper leads the Lions with a .405 batting average, sprinkling three doubles among her 15 hits with seven runs scored and six more driven in. Junior outfielder Maleah Hargett is next up with a .389 average, pacing UNA with 12 runs scored while driving in 11 more. Junior utility player Harley Stokes is close behind with a .382 average at the dish, leading the team with 13 RBIs on three home runs, five doubles and a triple, scoring 11 additional runs.

The Lion pitching staff is led by 2019 ASUN Pitcher of the Year Megan Garst, who set the UNA single season record for ERA a season ago with a sparse mark of 0.83. In six appearances and four starts this season, the senior has allowed five runs (three earned) on 12 hits in 27.1 innings of work, registering a 3-2 record with a 0.77 ERA. Sophomore Sidney Revels has thrown 18.0 frames in four appearances with three starts, tallying a 1.56 ERA with a 2-0 record. Freshman Maci Birdyshaw has also made four appearances with three starts, owning a 1.29 ERA with a 3-0 record over 16.1 innings.

HOME HAVEN
The Ole Miss Softball Complex has been a place of comfort for the Rebels in non-conference clashes in recent years. Ole Miss has won 19-straight non-conference regular season games in a row, having not fallen to a non-SEC team in Oxford during the regular season since a 5-0 defeat to Boston College in 2018. Dating back to last season, when Ole Miss went 13-0 at home in non-conference play, the Rebels have outscored their opponents 97-16 on home soil in non-league action.

POWERING UP
Through the first 10 games of the season, Ole Miss had yet to hit a single ball out of the park. That all changed over the weekend in Birmingham, with the Rebel bats exploding for eight long balls in five games. Autumn Gillespie was responsible for three of the dingers, while Abbey Latham and Jessica Puk each clobbered a pair of their own and Paige Smith tallied the first big fly of her career. The Rebels have homered in five-straight games entering Tuesday's affair, something the team never accomplished in 2019.

AUDDY PARTY
Few if any players in the country were as hot over the weekend as Rebel catcher Autumn Gillespie, who led the team with a .467 batting average at the Blazer Classic, scoring eight runs and driving in four more of her own. Gillespie had more than adequate pop in her bat, taking five of her seven hits for extra bases, including three home runs. Gillespie didn't let her hot hitting have an effect on her approach at the plate, also drawing six walks and one HBP on the way to a .636 on-base percentage. The senior was particularly on fire in the 14-11 marathon win over UAB. No matter what the Blazers threw at her, they couldn't get her out as Gillespie reached in all eight plate appearances, going 3-for-3 at the dish with a home run, a double, three runs scored, four walks and an HBP.

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.

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Players Mentioned

Autumn Gillespie

Abbey Latham

Jessica Puk

Paige Smith

The University of Mississippi Athletics