Softball Senior Weekend On Tap as UCF Comes to Oxford

			OLE MISS (31-16, 12-9 SEC) vs. No. 25 UCF (34-12-1, 13-6-1 AAC) Oxford, Miss. Ole Miss Softball Complex (1,000)
Ole Miss Notes (PDF) • UCF Notes (PDF) • SEC Notes (PDF)

Friday, April 30 6 p.m.	Saturday, May 1 4 p.m.	Sunday, May 2 11:30 a.m.
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LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss will honor its 10-member senior class on Saturday for Senior Day, recognizing Ava Tillmann, Sydney Gutierrez, Kacey Hvitved, Jessica Puk, Anna Borgen, Ally Mena, Autumn Gillespie, Abbey Latham, Kelsha Loftin and Gabby Alvarez.
• Ole Miss finishes off its non-conference season with a three-game series against UCF, coming off of a 2-1 series victory over Auburn the previous weekend.
• The meeting with the Knights will be the first for Ole Miss since a 3-0 win in the 2019 season opener in Orlando.
• The matchup with Auburn was the third-straight SEC series victory for the Rebels and the ninth consecutive league series win at home, dating back to 2018.
• Friday's win over the Tigers was the 15th shutout of the season for the Rebel pitching staff. Overall, Ole Miss allowed just one earned run during the series.
• The Rebel pitching staff has now held its opponents to three runs or less in 15-of-21 league games in 2019.
• Ole Miss improved to 12-9 in league play. The 12 wins are the second most SEC wins in program-history.
• The Rebels are 21-3 at home in 2021, outscoring opponents 117-37.
• In non-conference play, the Rebels have won 39 consecutive regular season games played outside of the SEC, dating all the way back to 2018.
• Ole Miss is fifth in the SEC standings with a 12-9 league record.
• After cracking the D1Softball Poll for the first time last week, Ole Miss moved up one spot to No. 23.
• The Rebels are also receiving votes in both the USA Softball Poll and NFCA Coaches Poll.
• Ole Miss fell one spot in the most recent NCAA RPI report, coming in at No. 27.

SCOUTING REPORT
UCF is in its third season under head coach Cindy Ball-Malone, who has quickly established the Knights as one of the best and most respected programs outside of the Power Five conferences. Following a successful first season, Ball-Malone led UCF to a 16-2 start in 2020, the best in program history, reaching as high at No. 22 in the NFCA Poll. Prior to UCF, Ball-Malone spent four seasons as head coach at Boise State, leading the Broncos to the NCAA Tournament in both of her last two seasons, the only postseason appearances for the program.

Ranked in all the major polls, UCF enters the weekend with a 34-12-1 record, including 13-6-1 in American Athletic Conference play. Bouncing back from an 0-3-1 weekend against Wichita State, the Knights swept four straight from Memphis last weekend. UCF also has a trio of marquee wins, two over Florida and one over Arizona.

Batting .313 as a team, the Knights are led offensively by senior Jazmine Esparza with a .383 average. Esparza also leads UCF in doubles with 14 and RBIs with 37, adding in seven home runs. In the power department, sophomore Shannon Doherty and senior Georgia Blair pace the Knights with 11 big flies on the season. Overall, UCF boasts seven players with more than 70 at bats batting over .300.

In the circle, the two main workhorses have been seniors Alea White and Gianna Mancha. White leads the team with 147.0 innings, posting a 17-4 record with a 1.76 ERA, 128 strikeouts and just 35 walks. Meanwhile, Mancha has garnered a 12-4 mark in her 117.2 frames, tallying a 1.96 ERA, 120 strikeouts and 45 walks.

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 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.

TIGERS TAMED
Ole Miss locked up its third consecutive SEC series win last weekend, taking two of three games from Auburn in Oxford. Not only was it the first-ever home series win over the Tigers for the Rebels, but also extended Ole Miss' home SEC series winning streak to nine series, dating back to 2018. Blaise Biringer and the Rebel pitching staff were the stars of the show during the series, with Biringer providing the walk-off hit in the eighth inning of game one and the pitching staff holding the Tigers to just a single earned run over the three games. The Rebels improve to 12-9 in SEC play, the second most wins in a season in program history.

RISING TO THE OCCASSION
Ranking as one of the Rebels' top offensive players all season long, senior Sydney Gutierrez has kicked things up a notch even further in conference play. Sitting at a .318 average for the season, Gutierrez ranks eighth in the SEC with a .381 average in league play, racking up the third most hits in the conference at 24. Additionally, five of the Rebel first baseman's seven extra base hits have come against SEC opposition, while 11 of her 20 RBIs have been against conference foes.

POWER PACK
The current Rebel lineup boasts some of the top power hitters ever seen in Oxford, with three players ranked in the top-10 in career dingers. Abbey Latham leads the group with 26 bombs in her career, third most in program history. Meanwhile, Autumn Gillespie and Jessica Puk have also been known to pack a powerful punch, sitting in sixth and tied for seventh in the record books with 19 and 18 career big flies, respectively.

AIN'T IT GRAND?
When Ole Miss has utilized the long ball this season, plenty of times they've done so in an extremely damaging way. Jessica Puk's third-inning grand slam against Memphis was the third of the season for the Rebels, tied with the 2019 squad for the most in a single season in the history of Ole Miss softball. The first two bases juiced big flies came off the bat of freshman Aynslie Furbush, who became the first Rebel ever to register a grand slam with her first hit and needed just three career at-bats to become the fifth player in program history with multiple grand slams in a career.

SOPHOMORE SURGE
Playing in her first full collegiate season, Paige Smith has added some much welcome punch to the Rebel lineup. The former Softball America Travel Ball Player of the Year leads the Rebels with 10 home runs on the season, becoming just the ninth Rebel ever to record double digit big flies in a single season.

BEST ABILITY? DEPENDABILITY
Over the past few seasons, no two players have been as rock solid dependable as Jessica Puk and Paige Smith. The duo are the only Rebels to start all 72 games the past two seasons, with Puk serving as the ultimate Swiss Army Knife and Smith splitting time between second and third base.

In fact, Puk has taken it a step further, starting every game of the last three seasons, a total of 133 games, after making just eight starts as a true freshman in 2018. Again, the Iowa native has shown flexibility too, making starts at six different positions during her career (catcher, second base, third base, left field, right field, designated player).

RISING TO THE TOP
Earlier this season, Anna Borgen crossed the 150 innings threshold for her career, officially qualifying for the all-time career marks in the Ole Miss record book. The Heath, Texas, native immediately vaulted all the way to the top, ranking first in program-history with a career ERA of 1.68 and a .227 career batting average against. Borgen has also posted eight shutouts in her career, all in the last two seasons, ranking seventh most all-time.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME
The Ole Miss Softball Complex has been an absolute fortress for the Rebels over the last few years. After going a perfect 8-0 at home in 2020, Ole Miss won each of its first 13 home games in 2021 to set the program record for a streak within the same season, finishing off the streak with 24 straight home victories. Ole Miss has won 54-of-62 games in Oxford dating back to the start of the 2019 season.

Outside of SEC play, the Rebels have been nothing short of dominant when playing in front of its home crowd. Ole Miss has won 39-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.

ROOKIE RECOGNITION
Following an exceptional week at the plate, Ole Miss' Blaise Biringer was named the SEC Freshman of the Week for Week 9. The Arizona native recorded a .545 average during the week, driving in and scoring three runs apiece. Biringer's biggest knock of the week came in the midweek tilt against Central Arkansas, becoming the first Rebel with an inside-the-park home run since Kylan Becker during the 2017 NCAA Oxford Regional.

CAME AND TOOK IT
Winning its first SEC road series of the season, Ole Miss took two of three games from Texas A&M over the weekend in Bryan-College Station, Texas. Entering the series with just a 2-15 record all-time against the Aggies, Friday's win was the first over Texas A&M for Ole Miss since 2013, while Saturday's victory marked the first-ever series win against the Aggies for the Rebels.

STATEMENT SWEEP
For the first time in the 25-year history of the rivalry, Ole Miss swept a three game series over Mississippi State, outscoring the Bulldogs 18-1 at the Ole Miss Softball Complex. It was the first sweep of an SEC of any kind for the Rebels since 2017, when Ole Miss took all three against No. 11 LSU in Oxford. The Rebel pitchers were nothing short of dominant against the formidable Bulldog lineup, holding MSU to a single run for a collective 0.37 ERA. The Ole Miss staff held Mississippi State to a meager .162 average over the weekend, compared to a .302 average at the plate for the Rebels. With the sweep, Ole Miss begins SEC play at 3-0 for the first time in program history. Ole Miss has won seven of the last eight and 13 of the last 17 matchups with Mississippi State.

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT
Ole Miss has resorted to a "by any means necessary" policy when it comes to getting on base, leading the nation with 71 HBPs on the season, 11 ahead of second best South Carolina. The Rebels have been plunked at least once in all but eight games in 2021, tallying multiple HBPs 24 times. Mikayla Allee and Paige Smith have been particularly adept, with Allee ranking third in the nation with 21 HBPs and Smith not far behind in a tie for fifth with 16. Allee has been wearing pitches her entire Rebel career, ranking second in school history with 42 HBPs despite only playing in 126 total games.

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 31 runners caught stealing is the third most in the SEC behind Missouri's Hatti Moore (33) and Mississippi State's Mia Davidson (34). However, Gillespie has been more efficient with controlling the run game than the three aforementioned players, with the California native throwing out 36.8 percent of would be base stealers, compared to 30.5 percent for Moore and 28.1 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 three 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.

SWITCHED HITTER
When Kelsha Loftin first arrived at Ole Miss in 2019, she had been a right handed hitter her entire career. In fact, the Jones College transfer was an extremely accomplished hitter from the right side of the plate, garnering the 2018 NJCAA Division II Player of the Year Award. However, as a consummate team player, when asked to switch to the left side and become a slapper the Mississippi native relished the challenge. In Loftin's first two seasons at Ole Miss she took just three at-bats, primarily serving as a pinch runner and doing so with a smile on her face, scoring 33 times in 57 appearances. This season, Loftin has been rewarded for her patience and team spirit with more opportunities at the dish and has taken full advantage. Entering the year without a single hit at the Division I level, the senior has made seven starts and taken 23 at-bats, tallying eight base knocks for a .348 average.

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

Kylan Becker

Blaise Biringer

Anna Borgen

Elantra Cox

Aynslie Furbush

Autumn Gillespie

Sydney Gutierrez

Kacey Hvitved

Abbey Latham

Kelsha Loftin

Ally Mena

Jessica Puk

Paige Smith

Ava Tillmann

The University of Mississippi Athletics