Softball Continues Homestand With Midweek Battle Against UCA

			OLE MISS (11-10) vs. CENTRAL ARKANSAS (13-8) Oxford, Miss. Ole Miss Softball Complex (1,000)
Ole Miss Notes (PDF)

Tuesday, March 3
6 p.m.

Watch • Live Stats

PROMOTIONS
• $1 Hot Dogs
• 90's Night Trivia

LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss welcomes Central Arkansas to the Ole Miss Softball Complex for a midweek tilt in Oxford, the fourth trip in five years for the Bears.
• The Rebels are coming off of a weekend in which they won the tournament championship of the 2020 Ole Miss Classic, sweeping all five games against California Baptist, Jackson State and Missouri State.
• Ole Miss dominated the competition, securing a pair of wins via the run-rule and outscoring its opponents 32-5.
• The Rebels have won six games in a row and have come out on top in 10 of their past 12 contests.
• Ole Miss is looking to remain undefeated at home in 2020. The Rebels have won all seven games at the Ole Miss Softball Complex this season and are riding a 26-game non-conference home winning streak during the regular season.
• The Rebels have found their power in recent games, homering in nine of the last 11 contests with 14 big flies over that stretch. Abbey Latham leads the team with four dingers, while Autumn Gillespie and Jessica Puk have provided three each.
• Sydney Gutierrez leads the Rebels with a .387 batting average. Since taking over the starting role at first base, Gutierrez is batting .471 with a .526 on-base percentage.
• Jessica Puk paces Ole Miss with six multi-hit games, twice as many as the next closest Rebel (five tied with three).
• Gutierrez and Puk have both reached in nine-straight games, the longest streak on the team this season.
• Autumn Gillespie has drawn a walk in seven of the last nine games, totaling 11 free passes during that stretch.

SCOUTING REPORT
The Central Arkansas Bears are in their 12th season under head coach David Kuhn. A native of Greenville, Mississippi, Kuhn got his start in head coaching in the Magnolia State at Delta State, where he is the winningest coach in the history of Lady Statesmen softball. During his time in Conway, Kuhn has led the bears to over 300 wins, reaching the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2015. Kuhn is the winningest active coach in the Southland Conference, boasting 706 overall wins as a head coach to his name.

The Bears are 13-8 on the season, having split their four games this past weekend at their home tournament, the Adam Brown Memorial Shamrock Classic at Farris Field in Conway. UCA took wins over Belmont and Northern Iowa, falling to ULM and Stephen F. Austin. The Bears have played two true road games in 2020, both against SEC foes, dropping a 3-2 result at LSU and a 6-3 loss at Mississippi State.

Senior Kayla Crutchmer is the spark plug to the UCA offense, leading the team with a .424 batting average and 16 runs scored, adding in three doubles and eight RBIs. Once on the bases, Crutchmer creates havoc, successfully stealing on 23-of-27 attempts. Sophomore Tylar Vernon ranked second on the team with a .378 average, adding some pop with five doubles, a triple and a home run. Senior Kaylyn Shepherd has been the primary run producer for Central Arkansas, pacing the squad with 21 runs driven in thanks to a .365 average, five doubles, four home runs and a triple, scoring 13 more runs herself.

The Bears primarily utilize a three-pitcher rotation, nearly splitting the workload into three equal parts. Sophomore Jordan Johnson holds a slight lead with 37.0 innings of work across 10 appearances and six starts, boasting a 1.51 ERA with a 4-2 record. Freshman Kayla Beaver has made eight appearances with six starts, totaling 36.0 innings with a team-low 1.17 ERA and a 5-1 record. Junior Rio Sanchez has tossed 35.0 innings in her 10 appearances and five starts, posting a 1.60 ERA and a 1-4 record.

FAMILIAR FOE
Over the last 10 plus years, Central Arkansas has become one of the most consistent opponents on the non-conference schedule for Ole Miss. The Rebels and Bears matched up for the first time ever in 2008, a 6-2 win in Oxford for Ole Miss. Since, the two sides have squared off in 10 of the last 12 seasons, including each of the last four. The majority of the matchups with the Bears have been played at the Ole Miss Softball Complex, where the Rebels have enjoyed a sweep of all eight contests.

REBS ON A ROLL
After starting out the season 1-8, Ole Miss has rebounded to take 10 of its last 12 games to get over the .500 mark for the first time this season. The main difference for the Rebels has been the resurgence of the bats, with Ole Miss seeing a marked turn around in every offensive category during the winning run. The team batting average is up 74 points from .218 to .292, while the slugging percentage over the past 12 games is up to .502, more than doubling the .239 mark put up in the first nine games. Ole Miss is averaging 6.7 runs per game over the 12 game stretch, mustering just 2.3 runs over the first nine contests.

POWERING UP
It took 11 games for Ole Miss to muscle up and hit its first home run of the season. Since then, the balls have been flying out of the yard. With Jessica Puk's third-inning two-run bomb in the Rebels' first game of the Ole Miss Classic, Ole Miss made it seven-straight games with a home run. It matched the longest streak in program-history, also accomplished in 2012. Since recording the first homer of the year in the victory over Oklahoma State, Ole Miss has left the park in 9-of-11 games, totaling 14 big flies.

RUN FACTORY
One of the hallmarks of Ole Miss softball in recent years has been the ability to manufacture runs without the benefit of a base hit, a fact that continues to apply to the Rebel program in 2020. Of the 101 runs scored by Ole Miss this season, 32 have been generated without a base knock, including 11 on ground balls, six on sacrifice bunts, three on sacrifice flies and two on double steals.

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 26-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 141-25 on home soil in non-league action.

JUNIOR ASCENSION
In the quest to identify a replacement for graduated senior Brittany Finney in the Ole Miss pitching rotation, juniors Anna Borgen and Ava Tillmann have risen to the top. After pitching in just four games in 2019, totaling 8.0 innings, lefty Anna Borgen has emerged as one of the more consistent arms on the Rebel staff. This season, Borgen has appeared in seven games with four starts, posting a team-best 1.30 ERA with two complete game shutouts and a 4-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio.

Tillmann has rebounded from an 0-2 start to the season to pick up the win in each of her last three decisions, having not surrendered a run in her last 9.1 innings of work. Tillmann ranks second on the team with a 1.54 ERA, currently holding the lowest career opponent batting average (.226) in Ole Miss softball history. Tillmann has also been trusted with the ball in late game situations, pacing Ole Miss with a pair of saves.

BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY
Despite not always putting up gaudy numbers in terms of batting average, sophomore Mikayla Allee has shown a knack for consistently finding her way on base. The sophomore is batting just .248 for her career, though that number has risen significantly in 2020, currently ranking third on the team at .313. Either way, the Rebel shortstop has found a way to get on no matter what, earning a .428 on-base percentage for her career, which would rank tied for third all-time at Ole Miss. One of Allee's biggest skills is her ability to draw HBPs, already wearing 19 pitches to rank fourth in program history despite only appearing in 81 games.

REBS CLAIM OLE MISS CLASSIC TITLE
Ole Miss is on a roll, winning six-straight games including five over the weekend to claim the 2020 Ole Miss Classic Championship. In coming out on top of the field that included California Baptist, Jackson State and Missouri State, Ole Miss outscored its opponents 32-5 in the five wins, posting a pair of run-rule victories. During the tournament, Sydney Gutierrez led the way for Ole Miss with a .500 average, tallying four RBIs and a .750 slugging percentage. Jessica Puk was another breakout candidate, garnering a .455 batting average, scoring four runs and driving in three more while also drawing four walks for a .625 on-base percentage. In the circle, Anna Borgen and Ava Tillmann combined to throw 16.1 innings of shutout ball, with Tillmann surrendering just two hits over 9.1 frames.

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

Mikayla Allee

Anna Borgen

Brittany Finney

Autumn Gillespie

Sydney Gutierrez

Abbey Latham

Jessica Puk

Ava Tillmann

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