The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Iowa State
Softball Heads to Boca Raton for FAU "Strike-Out Cancer" Tournament
2/18/2021 | Softball
Rebs to Square Off Against FAU, Iowa State and Missouri
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FAU "STRIKE-OUT CANCER" TOURNAMENT Feb. 19-21 Boca Raton, Fla. FAU Softball Stadium |
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| Ole Miss Notes (PDF) • FAU Notes (PDF) • Iowa State Notes (PDF) • Missouri Notes (PDF) • SEC Notes (PDF) |
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| Friday, Feb. 19 Iowa State | FAU 10 a.m. | 12:30 p.m. |
Saturday, Feb. 20 Missouri | FAU 11 a.m. | 4 p.m. |
Sunday, Feb. 21 Iowa State 8:30 a.m. |
| Game One: Live Stats Game Two: Watch | Live Stats |
Game One: Live Stats Game Two: Watch | Live Stats |
Live Stats |
LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss is coming off of a 2-2 start to the 2021 season at the Trojan Classic in Troy, Alabama. The Rebels split their doubleheaders both days, defeating UAB and Belmont and falling to the host Trojans and the Blazers.
• Ole Miss head coach Jamie Trachsel celebrated her birthday with her first Rebel win on Feb. 12 as Ole Miss topped UAB 8-2.
• Friday and Saturday's games with against Iowa State will be a reunion of sorts for Trachsel, who served as the Cyclone head coach for one season in 2017.
• Ole Miss is in the midst of a nine-game road trip to start the season. The Rebels will play in front of their home fans for the first time on Feb. 23, taking on Alabama State.
• Ole Miss visits Boca Raton for the first time since the 2010 season when the Rebels went 3-2 at the FAU Tournament. It is also the first matchup with FAU since 2010. Ole Miss last matched up with Iowa State in 2015.
• Jessica Puk was on fire at the plate during the opening weekend, posting a .385 average with a 1.154 slugging percentage. The senior led or tied for the SEC lead with eight RBIs, 15 total bases and three home runs, ranking second in the league with seven runs scored.
• Tate Whitley registered a pair of hits in three of the four games in Troy after posting two multi-hit games in 19 appearances in 2020. Whitley leads the Rebels with a .500 batting average.
• The Rebels had plenty in the tank in the power department, launching six home runs at the Trojan Classic, including four times against Belmont. It was the first time in program-history that the Rebels homered at least six times in the first three games of the season.
• The Ole Miss pitching staff racked up 28 strikeouts in 24 innings during the opening weekend. Savannah Diederich led the way with 14 Ks, including a career-high nine against Belmont.
SCOUTING REPORT
FAU
Joan Joyce leads FAU in her 27th season with the Owls. She is the only head coach in program history, owning a career record of 974-615-1 and racking up eight conference coach of year titles in three different conferences along the way. Under Joyce, FAU has claimed 12 conference championships and 11 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Picked fifth in the Conference-USA East, the Owls are comprised of four seniors, six juniors, six sophomores and eight freshmen, which make up the largest roster in the program's 27-year history.
A senior quartet of pitcher Kara Lokeinsky, catcher Kaitlyn Burke and outfielders Gretchen Ebert and Fayth Davis are expected to lead the Owls in 2021. Lokeinsky owned a 2.87 ERA in 12 appearances a year ago, while Burke led the team in batting average (.355), hits (22), RBIs (15) and total bases (29).
FAU played its season opener last weekend at the FIU Tournament where it went 1-3. The Owls fell to Winthrop and FIU on the first day of action and split the doubleheader with Winthrop on Saturday, earning their first win of 2021. Through four games this year, Burke paces the Owls offensively, batting .500 with five hits and three RBIs.
Iowa State
The Cyclones are led by fourth-year head coach Jamie Pinkerton. Pinkerton and Iowa State return 7-of-9 starters from last season but also boast a very young team, with 67.9 percent (19-of-28) of the roster being underclassmen, including an 11-player freshman class.
In the circle, Iowa State brings back its entire pitching staff from 2020. All 158.1 innings of work a year ago were handled by the freshman trio of Karlie Charles, Janessa Jasso and Ellie Spelhaug. The group had a combined ERA of 3.18 and allowed opponents to hit just .270. Although they have a year of experience under their belt, the rotation is still young.
A lineup that smashed a single-season record 48 home runs in 2019 returns its top 5 hitters, including 2019 All-American Sami Williams. A true power hitter, Williams is Iowa State's all-time home run record holder with 46 career dingers. She also ranks as the NCAA's active leader in doubles.
The Cyclones are coming off a 5-0 weekend at the Doc Halverson Uni Dome Tournament that featured wins over South Dakota State, Northern Iowa, Butler, Omaha and Drake. Iowa State outscored opponents 38-7, reaching double-digit runs in two of those victories.
NICE TO SEE YA
When Ole Miss takes on Iowa State in Boca Raton, it will be a matchup against one of Rebel head coach Jamie Trachsel's ole schools. Trachsel served as the head coach of the Cyclones for one season in 2017 before taking the head coaching position at Minnesota. Trachsel's Cyclones posted a 23-35 record, garnering their highest league win total in eight years along with the best regular-season Big XII finish since 1994.
LEADER OF THE PUK
To say that Jessica Puk was dialed in during opening weekend would be a massive understatement. The Iowa native put up monster numbers at the Trojan Classic. Puk accounted for 12 of the 20 runs scored by Ole Miss in Troy. Leading or tying for the SEC lead with eight RBIs, three home runs and 15 total bases, ranking second in the league with seven runs scored over the weekend. The senior really turned things up a notch in the 10-2 win over Belmont, launching a pair of three-run home runs to tie the Ole Miss single-game RBI record with six and register the second multi-home run game of her career. With the offensive explosion, the Agoura High School product became the first Rebel to drive in eight runs in the team's first three games since Amber Tramp in 2010. Puk also broke her career high in runs scored twice in the span of two days, scoring three times each against UAB and Belmont.
OPENING WEEK FIREWORKS
It took Ole Miss 11 games to record its first home run in 2020. This year, the Rebels opened up the season with much more of a bang, hammering six home runs at the Trojan Classic, including four big flies in the 10-2 victory over Belmont. The six dingers are the most in Ole Miss history through the first three games of the season. Jessica Puk leads the way with three homers, with Abbey Latham and Paige Smith also providing one apiece and Ally Mena smacking the first long ball of her collegiate career.
THANK YOU, NEXT
The Ole Miss pitching staff brought the heat during opening weekend in Troy, recording a total of 28 strikeouts in 24 innings of work at the Trojan Classic. The vast majority of the strikeouts came in the two Rebel wins, with Rebel pitchers fanning 11 and 12 batters, respectively, in the victories over UAB and Belmont. Savannah Diederich paced Ole Miss with 14 Ks over the weekend, includinga career-high nine in just 4.0 innings against the Bruins. Ava Tillmann also had her stuff working in the circle, racking up seven strikeouts over 8.2 frames.
TATE-IN' CARE OF BUSINESS
After going 6-for-12 at the Trojan Classic, junior outfielder Tate Whitley currently leads Ole Miss with a .500 batting average. Whitley picked up a pair of hits in three of the four games over the weekend and has registered at least one hit in 16 of her last 20 appearances since the start of last season. The three multi-hit games is also already one more than the native Texas produced in 2020.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW
Five players made their Rebel debut during opening weekend in freshmen Blaise Biringer, Landyn Bruce, Aynslie Furbush and Macey Keester as well as junior transfer Maddi Banks. Biringer was the only of the group to crack the starting lineup, making two starts.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
The Ole Miss Softball Complex has been a place of comfort for the Rebels in non-conference clashes in recent years. With a perfect 8-0 record at home in 2020, Ole Miss has won 33-of-38 games in Oxford in the last two seasons. The Rebs have not lost back-to-back home contests since dropping both ends of a doubleheader to No. 23 Mississippi State on April 15, 2018.
Outside of SEC play, the Rebels have been nothing short of dominant when playing in front of its home crowd. Ole Miss has won 27-straight non-conference regular season home 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 2019, when Ole Miss went 13-0 at home in non-conference play, the Rebels have outscored their opponents 149-25 on home soil in non-league action.
BALL MAGNET
Over the past two seasons, nobody on the Rebel roster has been more consistently on base than junior Mikayla Allee, having posted a .444 on-base percentage in her collegiate career. One of the key contributing factors to this is the Corona, California, native's uncanny ability to draw HBPs. Despite having played just 87 total games in her career, Allee has been hit by 21 pitches, already ranking fifth all-time at Ole Miss. Utilizing another year of experience, senior Autumn Gillespie has also shown a knack for reaching base by being plunked, sitting just ahead of Allee with 23 HBPs in a Rebel uniform.
VETERAN GROUP
Thanks in part to the extra year of eligibility allowed by the NCAA due to the 2020 season being cut short, Ole Miss returns one of if not the most experienced lineup in the SEC. Ole Miss boasts a roster of 12 seniors, including three players entering their fifth collegiate season and one player entering her sixth. Arkansas is the only other team in the conference with 12 players who are in at least their fourth season at the collegiate level.
The Rebels return five players with more than 100 games of experience (Gabby Alvarez, Autumn Gillespie, Abbey Latham, Jessica Puk, Amanda Roth), including three with greater than 100 starts (Gillespie, Latham, Roth). Entering her sixth season, Gillespie leads the way, cracking the starting lineup in 180 of her 185 appearances at the collegiate level. From top to bottom the Rebels boast experience, with 10 of the 23 players who play a position in the field having made at least 75 appearances in their career.
With every every-day player returning to the field for the Rebels in 2021, Ole Miss returns nearly all of its production in every offensive category, including at-bats (98.1%), runs (94.6%), hits (99.4%), RBIs (97.9%), doubles (100%), triples (100%), home runs (100%), walks (98.9% and stolen bases (100%). With four of six pitchers returning in the circle, Ole Miss returns a bulk of its production in appearances (71.4%), starts (56.0%), innings (56.2%) and strikeouts (51.9%).
RUN AT YOUR OWN RISK
Since joining Ole Miss ahead of the 2018 season, senior catcher Autumn Gillespie has struck fear in the eyes of opposing base stealers. Over the past three seasons Gillespie's 26 runners caught stealing has been topped by just two active SEC players (Mississippi State's Mia Davidson - 28, Missouri's Hatti Moore - 27). However, Gillespie has been far more efficient with controlling the run game than the two aforementioned players, with the California native throwing out 37.1 percent of would be base stealers, compared to 31.8 percent for Moore and 28.9 percent for Davidson. In fact, since Gillespie entered the league in 2018, no catcher with at least 25 runners caught stealing has gunned down a higher percentage of runners. Although the Rebel back stop did not throw out a base stealer during opening weekend, she nonetheless flashed her arm with a pair of pickoffs.
WHO YOU CALLING HOKIE?
Among the new faces in the Ole Miss lineup is utility player Maddi Banks, a transfer from Virginia Tech. The Iowa native is expected to make an immediate impact, earning D1Softball's SEC Preseason Newcomer of the Year laurel. In her two seasons in Blacksburg, Banks played in 75 total games among various positions. After establishing herself as a regular contributor as a freshman, Banks broke out in 2020. The junior started 22 games for VT, ranking fifth on the team with a .340 average while posting a .581 slugging percentage with three doubles, a triple and a pair of home runs.
OLE MISS PICKED 13TH IN PRESEASON SEC POLL
Ole Miss has been picked 13th in the 2021 Preseason SEC Softball Poll. However, in four of the past five completed seasons Ole Miss has outperformed its projection in the conference preseason rankings after being pegged 12th in 2019 and ultimately finishing fifth.
ROOKIES IN THE RANKINGS
In addition to having nearly the entire 2020 roster returning, Ole Miss bolstered its lineup with a talented group of six true freshmen. Included in that crew are a pair of rookies who were ranked in FloSoftball's Hot 100 Rankings in infielder Blaise Biringer and Aynslie Furbush, who plays both in the field and in the circle.
A middle infielder from Nogales, Arizona, Biringer was tabbed as the No. 59 incoming freshman in the nation by FloSoftball. Biringer helped lead Cienega High School to a pair of state championships, earning all-state laurels three times, including back-to-back first team nods in 2018 and 2019.
In addition to being ranked No. 85 in FloSoftball's class of 2020 Hot 100, Furbush was also slotted as the No. 16 rookie in the nation in Softball America's Top-25 Freshmen list. A 2018-19 Florida State Champion with Winter Springs High School, Furbush garnered Junior All-American laurels from MaxPreps and was also tabbed as the FACA 8A Player of the Year in 2019.
GO TEACH
In support of The College Football Playoff (CFP) Foundation's "Go Teach" initiative, Ole Miss senior pitcher Lindsey Johnson was among a group of more than 60 student-athletes across the country to be awarded with a $2,500 scholarship in support of her pursuit of an elementary education degree. Johnson is one of 12 SEC athletes and one of just two conference softball players to receive the scholarship.
A NEW ERA
A new era of Ole Miss softball begins in 2021, with Jamie Trachsel being named the sixth head coach in program history on April 24, 2020. Trachsel brings 18 years of coaching experience to Oxford, including 10 as head coach at successful programs in Minnesota, Iowa State and North Dakota State.
In her 10 seasons as a head coach, Trachsel has guided her teams to the postseason seven times. The Duluth, Minnesota, native has steered her teams to 11 conference regular season and tournament championships, coaching 47 all-league players along the way. Trachsel's crowning achievement came in 2019, earning NFCA Great Lakes Coach of the Year honors after taking the Golden Gophers to the program's first-ever Women's College World Series.
A familiar face in Oxford, former Rebel volunteer assistant coach Katie Rietkovich Browder returns to Ole Miss after spending two years on Trachsel's Minnesota staff. In addition to helping the Golden Gophers in their run to the WCWS, Rietkovich Browder was a key piece in Ole Miss' 2017 SEC Tournament Championship and trip to Super Regionals. Reitkovich Browder was also crucial in the development of the Rebels' corps of slappers, including the likes of Kylan Becker and Elantra Cox.
Former United States Junior Men's National Team member Ryker Chason is in his first season as Ole Miss' pitching coach. Prior to making the move to Oxford, Chason spent four seasons as a student at LSU, assisting Tiger head coach Beth Torina with pitching charts and pitch calls. During his time in Baton Rouge, Chason worked with a plethora of top-end talent, including All-Americans Carley Hoover and Allie Walljasper. While at LSU, Chason also served as the pitching coach for the nationally renowned Georgia Impact Premier Club travel ball team in Atlanta.
Rounding out the new faces on the pitching staff is former Elon standout Kara Shutt. Shutt spent the past two seasons as a graduate assistant at fellow SEC foe South Carolina. During her playing career, Shutt put together one of the finest careers in the history of Elon softball, setting the Phoenix' all-time record for career doubles with 63, while ranking second in school history with 253 career hits. Shutt also filled up her mantel with plenty of awards, earning a trio of All-CAA and NFCA All-Region awards apiece.
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. Also, follow head coach Jamie Trachsel on Twitter at @Jamie_Trachsel.
