Ole Miss Softball drops 2-0 contest to Louisiana in Oxford Regional, faces winner of SEMO/Chattanooga
OXFORD, Miss. — The calendar might say it is May, but Saturday in Oxford, it was certainly Summertime.
Louisiana junior Summer Ellyson kept the Ole Miss batters off balance all day as the No. 2 seeded Ragin’ Cajuns took a 2-0 win over the top-seeded Rebels. Louisiana advances to Sunday’s Regional Championship round while the Rebels will play Saturday night in an elimination game against the survivor of Chattanooga vs. Southeast Missouri State.
Ellyson allowed just three hits and struck out seven to increase her NCAA-leading record to 39-4.
Not to be outdone, the Rebs’ Molly Jacobsen allowed just one earned run and struck out 10 batters.
The game simply came down to a few miscues on defense.
In the top of the third Casidy Chaumont doubled with one out and moved to third when shortstop Mikayla Allee fielded a grounder from Keeli Milligan and attempted a play at third, but was a tad too late to put runners at the corners.
Then disaster struck.
Catcher Autumn Gillespie had Chaumont hung up between third and home but attempted to throw out Milligan at second. The throw sailed high and got through the outfield and rolled to the fence to allow both runners to score and give the Ragin’ Cajuns a 2-0 lead.
The Rebels’ best chance to get back into the game came in the sixth.
Gabby Alverez led off the inning with a pinch-hit single and was replaced by Kelsha Lofton who moved to second on Becker’s sacrifice bunt. But Ellyson rebounded with a strikeout and a ground out to end the threat.
Becker was the Ole Miss offense, leading off the game with a single and following it up with another in the third.
Next Up:
Now the Rebels face another challenge. First, they must win tonight’s 5:00 p.m game (vs. the winner of SEMO/Chattanooga) to advance to play on Sunday. If the Rebels win the 5:00 p.m. game, they will advance to play Louisiana and would have to defeat the Ragin’ Cajuns twice to advance to a Super Regional.
(Click here for live stats in the Rebels’ matchup vs. the winner of SEMO/Chattanooga.)
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
