Softball Set To Host SFA Series

			OLE MISS (18-4, 0-0 SEC) vs. STEPHEN F. AUSTIN (8-12, 0-0 WAC) Oxford, Miss. Ole Miss Softball Complex (1,000)
Ole Miss Notes (PDF) • SEC Notes (PDF)

Thursday, March 10 5 p.m.	Friday, March 11 1 p.m.	Friday, March 11 3 p.m.
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LEADING OFF
• After playing its first 16 games of the season on the road, Ole Miss Softball is back in Oxford. The Rebels are in the back half of a 9 game homestand, welcoming Stephen F. Austin to town for a three-game series.
• The Rebels wrapped up their weekend at the Ole Miss Classic with a perfect 5-0 record. Ole Miss is now 18-4 on the year, its best start to a season since opening the 2017 campaign 19-3.
• Head coach Jamie Trachsel picked up her 400th career victory as the Rebels shutout Samford 2-0 Sunday afternoon.
• Outfielder Tate Whitley has perfectly assumed the role of leadoff batter for the Rebels. The senior ranks tied for the national lead with 36 hits and is sixth in the country with a .514 batting average.
• Transfer Bre Roper has stepped into the Rebel lineup and made an immediate impact. The senior is batting .429 with 27 hits and 13 walks. Roper has also collected a hit in 11 of her last 14 games.
• Ole Miss has recorded shutouts in three of its last five games, blanking Western Kentucky, Saint Louis and Samford. Further, two of those shutouts came in the form of complete-game efforts from Brooke Vestal and Catelyn Riley.
• 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 (36), home runs (31), RBIs (133) and slugging percentage (.532).

SCOUTING REPORT
Nicole Dickson leads Stephen F. Austin in her sixth year with the program. She boasts a 146-108 record in her tenure with the Ladyjack softball program, guiding SFA to at least 30 victories in each of its last three seasons. Before the start of the 2022 season, SFA was projected to finish first in the Southwest Division of the WAC with 16 total votes and four first-place votes. Additionally, Shaylon Govan was picked as the WAC Preseason Player of the Year, and Kassidy Wilbur was named Preseason Pitcher of the Year. Stephen F. Austin is off to an 8-12 start to its 2022 campaign. The Ladyjacks have competed against several Power 5 opponents, including Baylor, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, LSU and Purdue. SFA is 0-3 against the SEC this season, with a close 5-7 loss to the Aggies in College Station last month.

Govan leads the team with a .514 batting average in 13 games this season. She ranks first among the Ladyjacks in almost every offensive category, including hits (19), runs (15), RBIs (16) and home runs (7). Wilbur has been the go-to arm in the circle for SFA in big games this season, despite a 4-7 record. She owns a 3.44 ERA in 61.0 innings pitched. The senior also recorded her first career no-hitter against Purdue earlier this season, striking out 12 batters in the 2-0 win.

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. She now owns a 400-210-1 record (.655) at the collegiate level and is 54-26 (.675) with the Rebels.

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 season 24-3. After picking up a 7-4 victory in their home opener and sweeping the Ole Miss Classic, the Rebels have now won 63-of-71 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 48-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.

HOTTY TODDY TATE
Senior Tate Whitley has been a sparkplug for the Ole Miss offense this season. Batting in the leadoff spot, Whitley went 11-of-17 (.647) at the Troy Invitational, scoring eight runs and tallying five RBIs. She followed it up with a 9-for-16 (.563) weekend in Orlando and a 10-hit week in Oxford. Whitley has reached base in all but five games for the Rebels this season and has collected multiple hits in 13 games. The Angleton, Texas, native already has 36 hits on the year, tied for the national lead while batting a hot .514 (sixth nationally).

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 0.00 ERA through 20.0 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 this past weekend in a 2-0 victory.

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 11 of her last 14 games and is hitting .429 on the season with 11 runs scored and a team-high 15 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 four appearances on the season, including a pair of complete-game shutouts. She tossed 7.0 innings of three-hit ball against DePaul at the Knights Classic, where she struck out a career-high nine batters. This past weekend, Vestal made a pair of starts in the circle, adding another complete-game shutout against Western Kentucky. The junior has yet to allow an earned run this season through 20.0 innings pitched.

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. This past Sunday 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 (36), home runs (31), RBIs (133) and slugging percentage (.532). Climbing her way through the record books, the Livingston, Alabama, native looks to cement her legacy as one of the Rebel greats.

DEBUT DINGERS
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.

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Players Mentioned

Brooke Barnard

Anna Borgen

Lexie Brady

Savannah Diederich

KK Esparza

Sydney Gutierrez

Nyomi Jones

Abbey Latham

Annie Orman

Catelyn Riley

Bre Roper

Makenna Segal

Brooke Vestal

Tate Whitley

The University of Mississippi Athletics