Ole Miss Softball Advances to Super Regionals After Extinguishing the Ragin’ Cajuns

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

Abby Latham coming home on a home run. Photo courtesy of Josh McCoy.

The Ole Miss Rebels softball team advances to the super regionals of the NCAA Tournament after a come-from-behind 5-4 win over Louisiana in a winner takes all game seven in the Oxford Regional.

Ole Miss forced a game seven of the Oxford Regional by defeating the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns 5-1 in game one on Sunday.

“What a day for us,” Ole Miss head coach Mike Smith said. “I don’t think I have been more proud of a team. We just had a never say die attitude. We felt disappointed after our loss yesterday.”

Ole Miss (41-18) got a leadoff double off the bat of Mikayla Allee. Allee came into score on a fielder’s choice by Autumn Gillespie that tied the game. Junior Kaylee Horton then brought senior outfielder Kylan Becker home on a hit to the shortstop.

The Rebels scored an early two runs in the first inning.

In the top of the second, Becker kept the Ragin’ Cajuns off the board as she pulled a home run back in play for an out.

Ole Miss extended their lead on an RBI double by Horton in the third.

“The whole team knew that we were going to come back and win this,” Becker said. 

Senior Brittany Finney was dominant in the circle for the Rebels as she only allowed two runs on five hits in 6.0 innings of work. She struck out three Louisiana sluggers to pick up the win.

Louisiana knotted the game at 3-3 on a three-run blast by sophomore Raina O’Neal in the fifth as Molly Jacobsen came into the circle to relieve Finney with runners at first and second with two outs. Jacobsen allowed two runs on three hits while fanning two batters.

In the sixth, Louisiana took its first lead, 4-3, of the day on a ball that got past catcher Autumn Gillespie and brought a run home from third.

In the next frame, freshman Katelin Cooper reached home off a squeeze play to tie it up. The last run of the game came as Kaylee Horton blooped the ball out of the Louisiana shortstop’s reach to score Becker. 

Ole Miss will take on the Arizona Wildcats in the super regionals.