Lee Shines As Rebels Win Series Over No. 16 Kentucky

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Lee Shines as Rebels Win Series Over No. 16 Kentucky

Ole Miss Softball defeats Colgate University 8-2 in the second day of the Hatter Invitational
in DeLand, FL.
Photo by Madi Osias/Ole Miss Athletics

For the second time this weekend, junior Kaitlin Lee dominated in a complete game effort, leading No. 24 Ole Miss to a 4-0 shutout over No. 16 Kentucky Sunday afternoon claiming the series.

In her third appearance against the Wildcats (24-8, 5-4 SEC), the JUCO transfer was lights out, allowing only five hits with no walks and a pair of strikeouts. It marked her second complete game of the series, as she improves to 8-4. Behind her, the Rebels’ (24-11, 2-7 SEC) defense was just as efficient, helping turn a double play in the fourth in a key moment in the game.
Offensively, Ole Miss took an early 1-0 lead in the first, and used a big 3-run sixth to add a trio of insurance runs. Sarah Van Schaik, who powered two home runs in Friday’s 7-1 win, picked up an RBI in the first. Kaylee Horton and Elantra Cox added the other RBI in the sixth, while the Rebels tallied nine total hits against UK’s Shannon Smith and Meagan Prince.
Ole Miss kicked its offense into motion early on when Cox reached on a leadoff walk and Kylan Becker singled sharply to left. After a fielders’ choice for the first out, Van Schaik singled to center scoring Becker, putting the Rebels on top 1-0.
Kentucky threatened in the third after a leadoff bunt single, then sacrifice bunt allowed the runner to advance all the way to third. But, Lee worked a big strikeout and a groundout stranding the runner there, keeping the Rebels on top 1-0.
The Wildcats had their biggest chance of the afternoon in the fourth when Alex Martens reached after being hit by a pitch, and Jenny Schaper dropped a bloop single to center putting two on with no outs. But, in the very next at-bat, Breanne Ray lined out to Paige McKinney at short and she turned the double play thwarting any threat from UK.
Kentucky again put pressure on in the fifth after a 1-out double from Bailey Vick and she moved to third on a groundout, but Lee again got Erin Rethlake on a strikeout to strand another runner in scoring position. From there, Lee was in cruise control as she retired the final six Wildcats in order.
The Rebels scored three more in the sixth when Dylinn Stancil got the frame started with a pinch hit single back up the middle, and Courtney Syrett also singled through the left side. Alyssa Gonzalez then delivered a pinch hit single, before Horton reached on a fielders’ choice to second, when everybody was safe scoring Grayce Majam for a 2-0 lead. After a double play to third scored McKinney, Cox singled back up the middle scoring Horton, capping the scoring at four runs for Ole Miss.
Cox finished the game going 1-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, while Kylan Becker again had a solid day at the plate with a 3-for-4 performance and a run scored.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports

Ole Miss Men’s Tennis Drops Heartbreaker to LSU

The Ole Miss men’s tennis team built a 3-0 lead behind the doubles point and singles wins on courts one and four, but LSU saved match points on court six and rallied for a 4-3 win Sunday at the LSU Tennis Complex.
The match came down to some third sets on several courts. LSU pulled to within 3-2 by winning three-setters on courts five and two, before tying it up on court three by taking a third set tiebreaker. The match hinged on court six, where Grey Hamilton had three match points in the second tiebreaker go away. He led 3-1 in the third set and had game points for 4-1, but LSU rallied and ended up winning the match 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 to clinch.
The Rebels started the day winning a close doubles point. Tim Sandkaulen and Filip Kraljevic won 6-3 on court three and then Zvonimir Babic and Ricardo Jorge took court two 7-5 to give Ole Miss the early 1-0 lead.
Things seemed to be going the Rebels’ way when they took five first sets including a dominating 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles from 38th-ranked Gustav Hansson against 56th-ranked Justin Butsch. Fabian Fallert added a 6-3, 6-2 win on court four against Agie Moreno to push the lead to 3-0.
In the one match where LSU won the first set, Kraljevic battled back to get the second, but then LSU’s Julian Saborio won a close third to put the Tigers on the board.
Sandkaulen won a first set tiebreaker, but LSU’s Gabor Csonka came back to take the second 6-3 and then dominated the third 6-0 to make it 3-2 with both remaining matches in the third set.
Jorge won his first 6-4 against Nikola Samardzic at No. 3 singles, but Tiger won the second 6-4. The third would go to a tiebreaker, which Samardzic edged 7-5 to tie the overall score.
Hamilton led 3-1 in the third, when Samuelsson won three straight games to go up 4-3. Hamilton tied it at 4-4, before Samulesson won the final two games to clinch.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports

School Records, Big Marks Highlight Ole Miss Track & Field Weekend

In what has already been a banner 2017 for the Ole Miss track & field program, the nationally ranked Rebels turned it up another notch at the Pepsi Florida Relays over the weekend.
Competing against a loaded field of the nation’s top college teams and a slew of the world’s top professional athletes, Ole Miss athletes broke two more school records, set 19 outdoor personal bests and recorded some of the nation’s best times and marks this season.
“A lot of good things happened over the three very long days,” head coach Connie Price-Smith said. “We had a lot of season bests, personal bests and got some regional qualifying marks out of the way. It’s good to have a solid second meet with everything going in the right direction.”
The 13th-ranked Rebel men enjoyed especially superb performances from veteran throwers Brian Williams and Dempsey McGuigan and mid-distance standout Craig Engels.
Williams won the discus invite in Gainesville with a spin of 60.95m/200-0, breaking his own school record from last weekend. He ranks No. 2 in the nation in his signature throwing event. The transfer from Iowa Central Community College also had a strong shot put, throwing an outdoor personal-best 18.30m/60-0.5 to place sixth in the invite section with a mark that ranks him among the NCAA’s top 20 this year.
In the hammer throw, McGuigan tossed a season-best 69.45m/227-10 to finish fourth overall and second among collegians in the competition. He ranks third in the NCAA this year.
Engels opened his outdoor season with an 800-meter run of 1:46.96 that ranks him fourth in the NCAA this year. It was just off the 1:46.03 that he ran for a fourth-place finish at last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials.
Other men with standout performances included Derek Gutierrez in the 800 meters (personal-best 3:44.39, No. 6 in school history) and Kevin Conway in the discus (personal-best 53.99m/177-1, No. 4 in school history).
The No. 23 Ole Miss women had a huge weekend, led by the amazing exploits of junior thrower Janeah Stewart.
For the second straight weekend, the junior college transfer from Iowa Central Community College set personal bests in all three of her events with some impressive distances. She broke her own school record in the hammer throw (64.69m/212-3) and had PRs in the discus (56.39m/185-0) and shot put (16.90m/55-5) that both rank No. 2 in school history. She is top 10 in the NCAA in all three events.
“Janeah had an exceptional meet,” Price-Smith said. “Her events were spread out all over the place. She really competed tough and always finds a way to rise to the occasion. It’s nice to see her break the school record and be able to do it when it counts.”
Sophomore Maddie McHugh carried her momentum from a strong indoor season by running an outdoor personal best of 2:07.99 to move up to No. 7 in school history and top 25 in the NCAA this year.
Junior Jolie Carbo ran a speedy 53.44 in the 400 meters to move up to No. 6 in school history and among the top 25 in the NCAA this year.
Carbo also helped the 4×400-meter relay (Jasmin Allen, Carbo, Aisha Newsome, Mercedes Mattix) to a nice showing by qualifying for Saturday’s final and running a season-best time of 3:38.31 that is No. 10 in school history.
“Jolie ran a great 400 and came back and ran a nice relay leg yesterday to qualify and a great one today,” Price-Smith said. “Running the splits she’s running now, she should drop her best time even more.”
Speaking of relays, the Rebels’ 4×100-meter squad of Nicole Henderson, Shannon Ray, Deanna Tate and Breanna Tate clocked a season-best time of 44.80 that ranks them No. 8 in school history.
Junior Shelby Brown made her debut in the 3000-meter steeplechase and ran an impressive time of 10:30.61 that ranks her No. 4 in school history.
Other personal bests in Gainesville included Jeanette Paul in the 100-meter hurdles (13.92, No. 9 in school history) and Annika Larsson in the hammer throw (57.14m/187-6, No. 4 in school history).
“A lot of girls had PRs or very close to PRs. It was a really good all-around meet,” Price-Smith said.
Ole Miss sent five runners to run the 10,000 meters at the Stanford Invitational on Friday.
Coming out on top for the women was junior Anna Braswell, whose personal-best time of 33:47.22 in her first 10K on the track ranks her No. 2 in school history and just eight seconds off the school record.
The only man at Stanford was senior Wesley Gallagher, who ran a time of 29:33.81.
“Our athletes were competing against some of the very best this weekend,” Price-Smith said. “National champions, runners-up and professionals. They have a great outlook though. Their times got better from last week and they’re going in the right direction. I think they have a good sense of reality that they’re getting better regardless of who they’re going against.”
Ole Miss returns to action next weekend at the Tennessee Relays in Knoxville.
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.

Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports