Softball's Perfect Home Record On the Line Wednesday Against South Alabama

			OLE MISS (14-7) vs. SOUTH ALABAMA (10-7) Oxford, Miss. Ole Miss Softball Complex (1,000)
Ole Miss Notes (PDF) • South Alabama Notes (PDF) • SEC Notes (PDF)

Wednesday, March 10
5 p.m.

Watch • Live Stats

PROMOTIONS
• $1 Hot Dogs

LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss is coming off of a 6-0 weekend at the Ole Miss Classic, sweeping a trio of doubleheaders over Samford, North Dakota State and Indiana State. With the wins, the Rebels improved to 7-0 at home.
• The Rebel pitching staff surrendered just one run over the seven games during the week, pitching 46 innings with 54 strikeouts.
• Ole Miss did not allow a run in any of the week's first four games, the first four-game shutout streak in program-history.
• Savannah Diederich pitching two shutouts during the week, tying the Ole Miss single game record with 15 strikeouts against Indiana State. Diederich is tied for the fourth-most strikeouts in the SEC with 65.
• Anna Borgen also tossed a pair of shutouts, extending her scoreless innings streak to 23 frames, tied for the third longest streak in school-history. The streak has dropped Borgen's ERA to 0.51, third lowest in the SEC.
• Paige Smith batted .600 during the week and is currently in the midst of a six-game hitting streak.
• The only Rebel with a longer active hitting streak for the Rebels is junior outfielder Tate Whitley, who has hit safely in nine-straight games.
• Whitley is also riding a 12-game reached base streak, while Sydney Gutierrez has reached safely in 10-straight contests.
• The Rebels have won 34-straight non-conference games at home, last falling to a non-conference foe in Oxford in 2018. The Rebels have won 40 of the 45 games played at the Ole Miss Softball Complex dating back to the start of the 2019 season.
• Blaise Biringer ranks sixth in the SEC with a .455 batting average, the lowest in the league amongst freshmen.

SCOUTING REPORT
Becky Clark has been the head coach at South Alabama since the team was created in 2007. Entering her 16th season with the Jaguars, Clark has led the team to a 447-296-1 record and four NCAA Regional finals (2012, '13, '14 and '15).

Heading into the midweek contest, the Jaguars are 10-7, with a pair of impressive wins over SEC opponents. South Alabama opened its season at the Annual Red & Black Showcase in Athens and split its two meetings with Georgia, 3-8 and 9-8. This past weekend the Jaguars competed at the Easton T-Town Showdown hosted by the Crimson Tide, where they earned the program's biggest win today date, a 1-0 victory at No. 2 Alabama Sunday. South Alabama also hosted Missouri, an opponent the Rebels lined up against, at home in the South Alabama Invitational, but dropped the contest 3-8.

Through 17 games, the Jaguars are led offensively by Kamdyn Kvistad and Meredith Keel. Kvistad has proven quite the threat with runners in scoring position, batting .359 and slugging .821, with four home runs and 11 RBIs. The versatile utility player has seen action behind the plate and at first base this season. Keel is another productive infielder on the South Alabama squad. She has a team-best seven multi-hit games this season and is tied for the team lead in doubles (5) and runs scored (9).

In the circle, Lackie ranks first on the team with seven victories and two shutouts in the circle, including Sunday's 1-0 win over Alabama. The Freshman leads the Sun Belt in strikeouts with 84 and is holding opponents to a .165 batting average. Senior pitcher Allie Hughen leads the Jaguars with a 1.89 earned run average in 37.0 innings of work.

OLE MISS ANNOUNCES UPDATED ATTENDANCE POLICY
In accordance with the State of Mississippi's latest executive orders, Ole Miss Athletics has announced updated attendance plans for softball this spring. These policies will take effect beginning with games this weekend.

After player guest lists have been received from both the home and visiting teams, priority admission will be offered to a select group of supporters through the Ole Miss Softball Diamond Club. Once those RSVPs are secured, remaining spots, which are expected to increase throughout the spring, will be offered to the general public on a first come, first served basis at the gates.

Current members of the Diamond Club (formerly the Dugout Club) that meet criteria will receive an email with details on attending games. Fans interested in the Diamond Club may join here.

Fans are required to wear a face covering upon entry into the facility, while in transit around the stadiums and may only remove them when at their seat. All other previously announced COVID-19 safety measures remain in place.

REBS SWEEP OLE MISS CLASSIC
The Rebels were the class of the town during the Ole Miss Classic this weekend, making a clean sweep of their home tournament with six victories over three days. The Rebels outscored their opponents 28-1 over the course of the six games, recording a pair of run rule victories. As a staff the Rebel pitchers garnered a 0.18 ERA over the weekend, allowing opponents to bat a meager .147 with 48 strikeouts to just five walks.

SPINNY REBS ROLLING
The Ole Miss pitching staff was nearly untouchable over the course of the seven games played at the Ole Miss Softball Complex this past week. All five pitchers on the Rebel roster saw action, teaming up to surrender just one run in 46 innings, striking out 54 batters in seven Ole Miss victories. The Rebels didn't allow a single run in any of the first four games of the week, the first four-game shutout streak in program-history. Savannah Diederich hurled a pair of complete game shutouts, surrendering a total of seven hits in 14 innings of work. The junior was electric in Sunday's win over Indiana State, matching the program single-game record with 15 strikeouts. Senior Anna Borgen also tossed two complete game shutouts, running her streak of scoreless innings to 23, tied for the third longest in Ole Miss history.

AGENT SMITH
There wasn't a bat hotter during the Ole Miss Classic than that of sophomore Paige Smith. The Corona, California native registered at least one hit in all six games, leading the team with a .600 batting average, a .684 OBP and a 1.067 slugging percentage after clobbering a pair of home runs over the weekend to tie for the team lead with five. Smith also led the Rebels with six runs scored, coming across the plate at least once in 5-of-6 games.

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. After going a perfect 8-0 at home in 2020 and kicking off the 2021 home slate with seven-straight wins, Ole Miss has won 40-of-45 games in Oxford dating back to the start of the 2019 season. 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 34-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.

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT
Ole Miss has resorted to a "by any means necessary" policy when it comes to getting on base, easily leading the nation with 30 HBPs on the season, seven ahead of second best South Carolina. The Rebels have been plunked at least once in all but four games in 2021, tallying multiple HBPs 11 times. Paige Smith and Mikayla Allee have been particularly adept, ranking first and third in the SEC with nine and seven HBPs, respectively. Allee has been wearing pitches her entire Rebel career, ranking third in school history with 28 HBPs despite only playing in 104 total games.

JUST BLAISE
While boasting just 21 games of experience under her belt, true freshman Blaise Biringer has quickly established herself as one of the most consistent bats in the Southeastern Conference. Biringer ranks sixth in the league with a .455 batting average, the highest among all conference freshmen. The rookie has shown the ability to do more than just slap singles, too, leading the nation with four triples on the year and becoming the first Rebel to leadoff a game with a home run since Lauren Grill in 2008.

GRAND OPENING
True freshman Aynslie Furbush made about as loud of a statement to open her Rebel career as possible, plowing a grand slam in just her second career at-bat in the 10-1 victory over FAU during the second week of the season. The following day, the Winter Springs, Florida, native did it again, clearing a base path that was full of Rebels. Furbush became the first Ole Miss player ever to register a grand slam as her first collegiate hit. Additionally, it took the rookie just three at-bats to come the fifth player in program history with multiple grand slams. Furbush finished the weekend with nine RBIs, leading the team.

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 11 seniors, including three players entering their fifth collegiate season and one player entering her sixth. Arkansas is the only team in the conference with more 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%).

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 29 runners caught stealing is tied for the most in the SEC with Mississippi State's Mia Davidson and Missouri's Hatti Moore. However, Gillespie has been far more efficient with controlling the run game than the two aforementioned players, with the California native throwing out 38.2 percent of would be base stealers, compared to 31.2 percent for Moore and 28.4 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. Even when runners don't take the risk of attempting to swipe a base, Gillespie has flashed her arm with a pair of pickoffs in 2021.

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.

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.

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. Rietkovich 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.

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Players Mentioned

Mikayla Allee

Gabby Alvarez

Maddi Banks

Kylan Becker

Blaise Biringer

Anna Borgen

Elantra Cox

Savannah Diederich

Aynslie Furbush

Autumn Gillespie

Sydney Gutierrez

Abbey Latham

Jessica Puk

Amanda Roth

Paige Smith

Tate Whitley

The University of Mississippi Athletics