Softball Hits Road For Final SEC Road Series

			OLE MISS (27-21, 6-12 SEC) vs. #14 FLORIDA (32-15, 8-10 SEC) Gainesville, Fla. Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium
Ole Miss Notes (PDF) • Florida Notes (PDF) • SEC Notes (PDF)

Friday, April 28 5 p.m.	Saturday, April 29 2 p.m.	Sunday, April 30 11 a.m.
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LEADING OFF
• Ole Miss Softball hits the road one final time in SEC play, making the trip down the Gainesville to face off against No. 14 Florida April 28-30.
• Florida swept the Rebels in Oxford last season; however, Ole Miss put up a fight in all three games.
• Mya Stevenson recently joined the 200-200 club, becoming one of six active NCAA student-athletes with at least 200 hit and 200 runs batted in.
• Middle infielders Keila Kamoku and Mikayla Allee have reached base safely in each of their last 10 games.
• Freshman Jalia Lassiter is in the midst of a eight-game hitting streak. During that span, she is batting .348 with 8 hits and eight runs scored.
• Senior Mya Stevenson tallied her 200th career hit on Monday night, joining Tate Whitley, who reached the milestone on April 8 in the Rebels' win over No. 15 Kentucky.
• Head coach Jamie Trachsel became the fastest to 100 career wins at Ole Miss in program history, needing only 159 games to accomplish the feat.
• Ole Miss boasts one of the nation's top defenses, ranking 14th in the country with 0.48 double plays per game and 39th with a .972 fielding percentage.

SCOUTING THE GATORS
Surpassing the 1,000 win mark this season, head coach Tim Walton has established Florida softball as a national powerhouse. In his 18th year at the helm of the Gators squad, Florida checks in at No. 14 in the NFCA poll and No. 15 in the USA Softball poll entering the series. The Gators were swept this past weekend by No. 4 Tennessee in Knoxville and dropped a midweek contest to in-state rival Florida State. The Gator offense is consistent top-to-bottom. Five individuals are batting .300 or better, with Skylar Wallace leading the way with a blistering .470 mark. Wallace also paces the team with 59 runs while leading them in slugging (1.070). She also has a team-high 28 stolen bases. As a team, Florida is hitting .326 with a .546 slugging percentage and .429 on-base percentage. When it comes to pitching, Florida has an overall ERA of 3.54. Fifth-year senior, Elizabeth Hightower, leads the team in strikeouts and wins this season with 68 strikeouts and 14, respectively. Riley Trlicek has the lowest ERA on the team with a 2.82 mark and has made the most appearances in the circle for Florida this season.

FURBUSH CALLS GAME (AGAIN)
Aynslie Furbush called game for the second time this season last Friday night in the Rebels' 8-5 win over No. 21 Texas A&M. The junior stepped up, smashing a walk-off three-run home run to help Ole Miss topple the Aggies in the series opener. Earlier this season in Mexico, Furbush took matters into her own hands, throwing all 8.0 innings, stranding 12 runners on base, and hitting the game-winning home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to walk off the Liberty, 3-2.

TAMING THE TIGERS
Ole Miss softball picked up its first SEC series victory of the season in Columbia, Missouri. After dropping game one to the Tigers, the Rebels battled back to take the series. Down one run going into the seventh inning, Ole Miss rallied for five runs in the top half of the inning and held on for a 7-6 victory. With the series on the line Monday night, the Rebels captured an early 5-2 lead, but Missouri tied the contest up at five in the fifth inning. Both teams battled into extra innings until Keila Kamoku stepped to the plate and delivered the knockout punch with a two-run home run to left in the ninth inning. Vestal came back out for the bottom of the ninth and retired the side in order, slamming to door shut on Missouri and clinching the series for Ole Miss with a 7-5 victory.

200 CLUB
Ole Miss is one of eight teams in all of Division I softball this year to have multiple active players with 200 career hits on its roster. Tate Whitley notched her 200th career hit on April 8 against No. 15 Kentucky with an infield single in the first inning. Her teammate Mya Stevenson recorded her 200th career hit this past weekend, hitting a three-run home run to help the Rebels top Missouri in the rubber match to take the series.

POWER SURGE
Sophomore infielder Keila Kamoku had a power surge at the plate the second week of April. The Kapolei, Hawai'i native batted .375 in four games with five total hits, four of which left the ballpark. Kamoku started off the week strong with a career-best 3-for-3 outing, featuring two homers, in Ole Miss' midweek win over Louisiana Tech. She went yard in the Rebels' only loss of the week at Missouri and smacked the game-winner in the ninth inning to help Ole Miss take the series. Kamoku finished the week with a 1.308 slugging percentage.

HOT HITTING
Ole Miss' offense has been hot in its last 10 games. As a team, the Rebels have tallied 84 hits, including 38 for extra bases, while boasting a .300 mark at the plate. Among those leading the offensive attack are Lexie Brady, Keila Kamoku, Tate Whitley and Savana Sikes. Brady has been on a tear as of late, hitting .417 in her last 10 games. Whitley and Sike have contributed at the top of the lineup with 23 combined hits in that span. Kamoku, Brady and Paige Smith have also utilized the long ball over the last 10 games, smacking four, two and four, respectively.

KEEPING IT 💯
Lexie Brady's career day at the plate helped Jamie Trachsel earn her 100th victory as a Rebel as Ole Miss toppled No. 15 Kentucky 9-3 on April 9. With the victory, Trachsel became the quickest coach to 100 wins in program history, needing only 159 games to reach the century mark. The Rebels put on an offensive clinic against the Wildcats, scoring seven runs in the second inning. Tate Whitley and Savana Sikes each sparked the offense going 3-for-4 on the afternoon, but it was Brady who shined at the plate, hitting a three-run bomb and a double. Catelyn Riley was battled in the circle, holding the Kentucky offense on only one earned run on four hits while striking out five in the complete game effort.

A LEAGUE OF HER OWN
Freshman catcher Jamie Mackay started playing baseball from the time she was four until she graduated high school. Playing both catcher and serving as a relief pitcher, Mackay was a two-time letterwinner at Pacifica Christian High School and a member of the United States Women's National Baseball Team. Despite not playing softball, Mackay signed with Ole Miss' 2022 class. She stepped foot on a softball field for the first time less than a year ago and is now the starting catcher for the Rebels. Through 26 starts, she is batting .279 with 12 hits, seven runs scored and eight RBIs.

THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER
So far this season, three has been the magic number for the Ole Miss offense. The Rebels boast a 26-6 record when scoring three or more runs. Further, Ole Miss' pitching and defense have kept them in almost every game this season, only allowing more than three runs in 14 of 48 games.

THE BULL IS BACK
After suffering an injury in the Rebels season opener and missing a month of action, Catelyn Riley returned just in time for conference play. Last season, Riley was a mainstay in the Ole Miss lineup, boasting a .361 average at the plate, while posting a 3.46 ERA through 81.0 innings pitched in the circle and collecting a team-high 12 wins, the second-most by an Ole Miss freshman pitcher. Back healthy in 2023, she has earned wins over No. 10 LSU, No. 19 Auburn and No. 15 Kentucky over the month. The Dandridge, Tennessee, native currently leads the team with a 2.10 ERA. Although she has only thrown 63.1 innings on the season, the sophomore is showing no signs of slowing down in year two.

HOTTY TODDY TATE
Back in the lineup after missing most of February, Tate Whitley has resumed her leadoff duties as the sparkplug for the Ole Miss offense. With 36 games under her belt this season, Whitley is back into the swing of things, hitting a team-best .339 with 12 multi-hit games. Playing her fifth year in a Rebel uniform, she has become one of the most consistent hitters in school history. The Angleton, Texas, native collected her 200th on April 8th against No. 15 Kentucky, joining Lauren Grill, Kylan Becker and Elantra Cox as the only player in program history to tally 200 hits in their career. She now ranks fourth all-time at Ole Miss with 211 hits and is fifth in program history with a .348 career average at the plate.

MY OH MYA
Slugger Mya Stevenson ranks eighth in the SEC and 42th nationally with 12 home runs in 43 games played this season. Further, her 12 homers are tied for the third most in a single season in program history. The graduate transfer leads the team with 33 RBIs and a .619 slugging percentage. Stevenson is up to 71 career home runs, the most among all active players in Division I College Softball.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME
The Ole Miss Softball Complex has been an absolute fortress for the Rebels since the arrival of head coach Jamie Trachsel. After going 24-3 at home in 2021 and 19-6 in Oxford last season, Ole Miss is ready to defend its home field again in 2023. The Rebels are 14-9 at home this season and have now won 90-of-113 games at home, dating back to the start of the 2019 season.

SPINNY REBELS
Since the arrival of pitching coach Ryker Chason, the Ole Miss pitching staff has been one of the SEC's best. The Spinny Rebels boast a 2.82 ERA over the past three seasons, including a 2.51 mark through 48 games this season (48th nationally). Chason's pitching staff ranked third in the conference with 29 shutouts from 2021-22 and has eight this season, ranking 72nd in the nation. Six of the eight shutouts this year have come at home, where the Rebels have only surrendered 43 earned runs in 151.0 innings pitched.

LANDSHARK DEFENSE
At Ole Miss, Landshark is a term that was first adopted by the Rebel football team's defensive unit. This spring, a different team on campus has adopted the Landshark defensive mindset. Ole Miss softball boasts one of the most sound defenses in the nation. It ranks 14th in the country in double plays, turning 0.48 per game and 39th in fielding percentage with a .972 mark. The Rebels have only committed 37 errors on 1,336 chances.

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST
Fifth-year senior Mikayla Allee is quietly putting together the best offensive season of her career. The Corona, California, has climbed the lineup and ranks third on the team with a .302 batting average. Allee has a team-best 39 hits this season and has collected multiple in eight contests already this year. Further, her 39 hits this season are a single-season career-high, topping the 28 she had last year.

ONE LAST RIDE
In 2023, four Rebels will be exercising their fifth season of eligibility as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Two returners in Mikayla Allee and Tate Whitley, along with Marshall transfer Mya Stevenson and Georgia transfer Savana Sikes, are set to cap off their collegiate careers in Ole Miss uniforms.

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

Lexie Brady

Aynslie Furbush

Keila Kamoku

Jalia Lassiter

Jamie Mackay

Catelyn Riley

Savana Sikes

Paige Smith

Mya Stevenson

Tate Whitley

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