Ole Miss Softball Takes Series over South Carolina

The middle infield duo of Keila Kamoku and Mikayla Allee shined for Ole Miss as they accounted for four of the Rebels’ six hits in a 2-1 pitcher’s duel with South Carolina Saturday afternoon at the Carolina Softball Stadium. Kamoku was a career-best 3-for-3, driving in Allee for both of the Rebel runs.

With the victory, Ole Miss (32-14, 7-10 SEC) secured the series over the Gamecocks (25-23, 2-15 SEC). It marks the Rebels’ first series victory over a conference opponent on road this season.

In the circle, a trio of Rebels combined to hold the Gamecocks to two hits all afternoon. Savannah Diederich went the first 1.2 innings before giving way to Aynslie Furbush. She picked up her fifth victory of the season and retired 12 of the 13 batters she faced, and Anna Borgen earned her second save of the season, going the final 2.0 innings.

For the second straight day, Ole Miss had to work from behind, as South Carolina took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. After issuing a pair of walks, the Gamecocks scored on a two-out bloop single to center. Furbush was able to minimize the damage as a fly out left the bases loaded.

In the fourth inning, the Rebels tied things up. Allee showed patience at the plate, earning a one-out walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from KK Esparza. With two away, Kamoku delivered a huge RBI double over the right fielder to pull Ole Miss even.

The offense ran through Allee and Kamoku again in the top of the sixth. The senior shortstop took a 2-2 pitch and drilled a double down the left-field line. She moved 60 feet closer to scoring on a groundout before Kamoku came up big, driving in the go-ahead run on her third hit of the afternoon.

Borgen took over in the bottom half of the sixth and retired the final six batters of the game to help the Rebels close out the victory.

Ole Miss will go for the sweep in Columbia Sunday at 12 p.m. CT.

Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports