@olemisspix
This afternoon the Ole Miss softball team makes its first-ever NCAA appearance in the college softball World Series tournament.
The Rebels (39-20, 11-13 SEC) are the No. 2 seed in the Norman Oklahoma regional. They will face Tulsa at 5:30 p.m.
The Rebels set school records in wins (39), home victories (21), road, wins (11) and tied the SEC wins record (11). In the last nine games of the season, eight were against top-25 teams in No. 14/15 Georgia, No. 9 Tennessee, and No. 1 Florida. In that span, the Rebels picked up three wins, totaling 10 against top-50 RPI teams all year.
Senior Madi Osias has been the warrior for the Rebels all season, totaling a program record 21 wins in the circle, fifth in the SEC and 36th nationally. Six of her last eight starts have been complete games with three shutouts.
Let us take a closer look at Tulsa.
Tulsa went 3-0 in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, topping No. 25 UCF and No. 24 USF to claim the tournament title. Pitching has been the key for the Golden Hurricane this season as Tulsa has a 2.16 team ERA, 14th-best nationally, led by Caitlin Sill and Emily Watson. Sill has the team lead with 19 wins and a 1.72 ERA while Watson is 12-9 with a 2.31 ERA. She’s eighth nationally in strikeouts per seven innings with 9.9, totaling 172 Ks and just 45 walks. Offensively, Tulsa is batting at a .293 clip led by five players at .300 or better. Maggie Withee has a team-best .374 average while her sister Maddie has 45 RBI.
Here is the format of the Norman Regional: if the Rebels defeat Tulsa they will move on to play the winner of Oklahoma and Wichita State at 1:30 p.m., but if the Rebels fall they drop down into the loser’s bracket game at 4 p.m.
All of these games can be seen on ESPN 3.
Adam Brown is the sports editor for HottyToddy.com. Adam can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.
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