The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Missouri
Softball Continues Conference Play With No. 19 Missouri
3/24/2022 | Softball
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OLE MISS (21-7, 0-3 SEC) vs. #19 MISSOURI (19-9, 0-2 SEC) Oxford, Miss. Ole Miss Softball Complex |
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| Ole Miss Notes (PDF) • Missouri Notes (PDF) • SEC Notes (PDF) | ||||||||
| Friday, March 25 8 p.m.  |
Saturday, March 26 4 p.m.  |
Sunday, March 27 1 p.m. |
| Watch • Live Stats | Watch • Live Stats | Watch • Live Stats |
LEADING OFF
• After dropping the opening weekend series to Mississippi State on the road, Ole Miss returns to Oxford and looks to bounce back against No. 19 Missouri.
• Playing in Oxford, the Rebels have won 51 consecutive non-conference games, having not fallen to a non-SEC team at home during the regular season since 2018. Historically, they have played extremely well on their home field, boasting a 24-3 record last season and a 9-0 record so far in 2022.
• Ole Miss got off to a 21-4 start to the season, tied for the best record through 25 games in program history with the 2017 team that won the SEC Tournament Championship and advanced to the NCAA Super Regional.
• Outfielder Tate Whitley has perfectly assumed the role of leadoff batter for the Rebels. The senior ranks second in the nation with 45 hits and is sixth in the country with a .500 batting average.
• Transfer Bre Roper has stepped into the Rebel lineup and made an immediate impact. The senior is batting .398 with hits in 15 of her last 20 games.
• Freshman Angelina DeLeon has been one of the hottest hitting Rebels since their return to Oxford, batting a team-high .500 at home and .385 on the season.
• One of the Rebels' top offensive weapons in Abbey Latham is back for an extra season in Oxford. The fifth year senior currently ranks inside the top five in program history in doubles (37), home runs (31), RBIs (137) and slugging percentage (.525).
MISSOURI SCOUTING REPORT
Larissa Anderson is in her fourth season as head coach at Missouri, boasting a 115-68 record during her tenure. The Tigers are coming off one of the best seasons in program history in which they hosted an NCAA Regional and Super Regional for the first time since 2013. Missouri enters the weekend series with a 19-9 record on the year and checks in at No. 19 in the USA Softball/ESPN Top 25 and No. 21 in the NFCA Coaches Poll. The Tigers are 5-5 in their last 10 games, having faced No. 18 Tennessee, No. 14 Northwestern and now ranked No. 25 Stanford. Missouri leads the all-time series with Ole Miss 16-5, although the Rebels took the last series in Oxford 2-1 back in 2019. Led by power hitter Kimberly Wert, Missouri ranks 10th nationally with 45 home runs on the year. Wert, who has eight so far this season, is tied for the Mizzou career home run record with 47 in her four seasons with the Tigers. In the circle, Missouri is led by Laurin Krings with a 2.27 earned run average and 9-3 record through 77.0 innings pitched. As a staff, the Tigers boast a 2.79 ERA while holding opponents to a .231 mark at the plate.
ONE LAST RIDE
In 2022, four Rebels will be exercising their fifth season of eligibility as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Three returners in Abbey Latham, Anna Borgen and Sydney Gutierrez, along with Georgia Tech transfer Bre Roper are set to cap off their collegiate careers in Ole Miss uniforms.
TRACHSEL'S 400TH CAREER VICTORY
Head coach Jamie Trachsel picked up her 400th career victory as the Rebels shutout Samford 2-0 to close out an undefeated weekend at the Ole Miss Classic Sunday afternoon. Catelyn Riley was dominant in the circle, going the distance for her first career complete-game shutout as she faced 25 batters and only allowed three hits. Offensively, Nyomi Jones delivered a clutch RBI single to break the tie in the fifth. The milestone victory for Trachsel gives her 400 career wins in her 11th season as a head coach.
HOTTY TODDY TATE
Senior Tate Whitley has been a sparkplug for the Ole Miss offense this season. Hitting in the leadoff spot, Whitley has reached base in all but six games for the Rebels this season and has collected multiple hits in 17 contests, including seven three-hit games. Through 28 games, the Angleton, Texas, native has tallied 45 hits, one more than her total from last season (44). Whitley is tied for second in the NCAA in hits this season and ranks sixth nationally with a .500 batting average.
SHUT DOWN STUFF
After ranking second in the SEC and 11th in the nation last season with 16 shutouts, the Rebels' pitching staff is back at it in 2022. Ole Miss has tallied seven shutouts so far this season, including four complete-game efforts. Junior Brooke Vestal owns a pair of shutouts and leads the team with a 5-1 record through 31.1 innings pitched. Savannah Diederich also owns one of the complete-game shutouts, nearly tossing the first no-hitter of her career as she went 6.2 innings without allowing a hit. Freshman Catelyn Riley is responsible for the other complete-game effort, blanking Samford to close out the Ole Miss Classic.
IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Following the conclusion of the 2021 season, Ole Miss announced the addition of two transfers who look to contribute right out of the gate. Utility player Bre Roper joins the Rebels from Georgia Tech as a fifth-year senior and has already established herself as a mainstay in the Ole Miss lineup. Roper has tallied a hit in 15 of her last 20 games and is hitting just shy of .400 on the season with 15 runs scored and 19 more batted in.
Also making her way to Oxford is junior right-hand pitcher Brooke Vestal. The former No. 1 recruit in the nation by FloSoftball and high-school All-American joins the Rebels after spending the last three seasons at Oklahoma. Vestal has six appearances on the season, including a pair of complete-game shutouts against DePaul and Western Kentucky. She picked up a pair of wins against Stephen F. Austin earlier this month, including a career-high 12 strikeout outing, to move to 5-0 in 2022. The junior owns a 2.23 ERA on the year.
RISING TO THE OCCASION
Last season, Sydney Gutierrez ranked 11th in the SEC with a .366 batting average in league play, the fourth-highest average in SEC play for a Rebel in the last decade. Three games into the 2022 conference slate, the fifth year senior is picking up where she left off. Gutierrez went 4-for-10 over the weekend in Starkville, leading the team with four hits and three RBIs.
HOT HITTING
Freshman Angelina DeLeon has been one of the hottest hitting Rebels since their return to Oxford. She is batting a team-high .500 through the first nine games at the Ole Miss Softball Complex this season, with a hit in 16 of her last 18 games. This past weekend, she went 3-for-9 as the Rebels opened SEC play. The Valley Springs, California, product has come into her own at the second base position, batting .385 on the season, fifth among freshmen in the SEC.
LATHAM'S LEGACY
One of the Rebels' top offensive weapons in Abbey Latham returned for an extra season in Oxford. The fifth-year senior is coming off one of her most productive seasons and is off and running with the Rebels in 2022. Earlier this season against Samford, Latham played in the 200th game of her Ole Miss career. She currently ranks inside the top five in program history in doubles (37), home runs (31), RBIs (137) and slugging percentage (.525). Climbing her way through the record books, the Livingston, Alabama, native continues to cement her legacy as one of the Rebel greats.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
The Ole Miss Softball Complex has been an absolute fortress for the Rebels over the last few years. After going 24-3 at home in 2021, including a perfect 15-0 against non-conference opponents, the Ole Miss is off to a 9-0 start in Oxford. It picked up a 7-4 victory in their home opener, swept the Ole Miss Classic and swept a three-game series with SFA. The Rebels have now won 66-of-74 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 51-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.
Freshmen Annie Orman and Makenna Segal made the most of their first collegiate at-bats, blasting home runs. Orman took only the third pitch of her career for a ride, sending the Rebel dugout into a frenzy against Nicholls State. Segal got all of a 3-2 pitch, launching her first career home run against Eastern Kentucky.
ROOKIES IN THE RANKINGS
Head coach Jamie Trachsel's first recruiting class at Ole Miss welcomed nine freshmen to Oxford. The talented group ranked No. 10 in the nation by Extra Innings Softball bolsters a healthy mix of talent across the field. The class includes eight total signees, including four members of Extra Innings' Elite 100 Player Rankings.
Infielder Brooke Barnard was tabbed as the No. 11 ranked recruit in Extra Innings Softball's 2021 Recruiting Rankings. A three-time letterwinner at Palm Beach Gardens High School in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Barnard helped lead PBGHS to district championships in 2018 and 2019, while receiving all-district, all-county and all-state honors in both seasons.
A three-time South Dakota First Team All-State and four-time Class A All-Tournament Fastpitch honoree, Lexie Brady checks in tied for 52nd in Extra Innings Softball's Recruiting Rankings. As a senior at O'Gorman High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Brady hit .544 with nine doubles, a triple and eight home runs, scoring 35 runs and driving in 28 more.
Makenna Segal comes to Oxford ranked tied for 65th in Extra Innings Softball's Recruiting Rankings. A four-time letterwinner at South Forsyth High School in Cumming, Georgia, she set school records in career batting average (.489), career on-base percentage (.620), home runs (34) and career walks (118).
KK Esparza rounds out the Rebel freshman class in the Extra Innings Softball's Recruiting Rankings at No. 69. Esparza was a three-time letterwinner at Friendswood High School in Friendswood, Texas, where she played under Olympic gold medalist Christa Williams-Yates.
OLE MISS PICKED 9TH IN PRESEASON SEC POLL
Ole Miss has been picked 9th in the 2022 Preseason SEC Softball Poll. Last season, Ole Miss finished eighth in the conference after being picked last in the coaches' poll. The Rebels garnered a 12-12 record in league play in 2021, with the 12 wins ranking as the second-most ever in a season in program history. In five of the past six completed seasons, Ole Miss has outperformed its projection in the conference preseason rankings.
CHAMPIONS. NOW.
The $350 Million CHAMPIONS. NOW. capital campaign has been established to vastly improve the Ole Miss Athletics facilities and raise the standard for the Rebels' level of competitiveness and success within the Southeastern Conference and nationally. The Ole Miss Softball Complex is one of the first phases of the plans with a $20 million stadium renovation, featuring a larger press box, upgraded grandstands, enlarged bullpens, as well as improved team offices and storage, helping raise the standard.
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.
