Softball Rebels earn No. 11 National Seed, will host Oxford Regional

OXFORD, Miss. — As it turns out, Senior Day was not the last day the Ole Miss upperclassmen get to play in Oxford. After a 37-11 record, the Rebels were rewarded with a No. 11 national seed and will host a regional in the NCAA Tournament–just the second time in program history the Ole Miss Softball Complex will play host to a regional.

Oxford Regional

Photo credit: Josh McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics

Joining the Rebels will be No. 2 seed Louisiana (50-4, 25-0 Sun Belt), No. 3 seed Southeast Missouri State (45-16, 17-5 OVC) and No. 4 seed Chattanooga (37-15, 11-7 SoCon).

Louisiana and SEMO will open the regional on Friday at 3:30 p.m. CT, with Ole Miss taking on Chattanooga later that night at 6 p.m. CT.

The Rebels will be competing in their fourth straight NCAA regional, the only four tournament appearances in the history of Ole Miss Softball. The Rebels hosted their first ever regional in 2017, hot off of the program’s only SEC Tournament Championship, claiming three straight games to advance to a Super Regional.

Ole Miss sits at 37-17 on the season, garnering a 13-10 record in SEC play to finish fifth in the league, the highest finish in program history. Of the Rebels’ 37 wins, 12 came against ranked teams.

SEC prowess

All 13 softball-playing teams from the Southeastern Conference earned their way into the tournament. Along with Ole Miss, Florida (fifth seed), Alabama (eighth), LSU (tenth), Tennessee (12th) and Kentucky (14th) also will host regionals.

Missouri will play in the UCLA regional against Cal State Fullerton, while Mississppi State will also visit the west coast in the University of Washington regional. The Bulldogs take on Seattle University in the first game.

South Carolina goes to Tallahassee and will face South Florida in the first round at Florida State. Auburn heads to Tuscon where the Tigers battle Colorado State.

Georgia travels north the Minnesota and will take on Drake Friday, while Texas A&M makes the short trek to Austin to face Houston. The Austin regional also features host Texas and Sam Houston State to make it an all-Lone Star State affair.

Arkansas gets to travel to Oklahoma State after the Cowgirls visited Fayetteville last year. The Razorbacks play Tulsa in the first round.

This is the third consecutive season every SEC team received a bid into the national tournament.

Ole Miss vs. Chattanooga

Ole Miss has an interesting regional. The first game is against a 37-15 Mocs team and after that, either SEMO (45-16) or Louisiana, the Sun Belt champions, awaits. The Ragin’ Cajuns come into the tournament with an impressive 50-4 record

The Rebels are lead offensively by Kylan Becker who is sporting a .411 batting average, but she is far from the only weapon. Abbey Latham and Brittany Finney have each belted eight home runs, while as a team the Rebs have 117 extra-base hits.

In the circle, Finney has posted a 15-9 record with nine complete games. Molly Jacobsen has gone 13-6 with a team-high 142 strikeouts.

Ticketing info

All-Session books are on sale now. All reserved seats will be allocated based on Red priority points and Rebel Reward softball points. (Click here for ticketing info.)

Timeline:
Sunday, May 12 – Online sales begin at OleMissTix.com
Monday, May 13 at 5 p.m. – Priority deadline for reserved seats
Thursday, May 16 at 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. – Tickets and parking passes available for pick up at Tad Smith Coliseum Ticket Office
Thursday, May 16 at 5 p.m. – General Admission single game tickets available at OleMissTix.com, if available
Friday, May 17 at 8 a.m. until mid-4th inning of second game – tickets and parking available for pick up at Tad Smith Coliseum

Pricing:
NCAA Regional Books:
Reserved – $45
General Admission – $30
Students – $20

Parking:
Regional parking passes are $30 each. Limited parking passes will be available for sale and orders will be allocated based on Blue priority points.

Reserved parking:
Ole Miss Soccer Lot
Gillom Athletic Performance Center
Tuohy Basketball Center
First come, first served public parking will be available at all non-reserved lots.

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.