Ole Miss freshman Madi George had plenty to smile about after setting a new single-season freshman home run record against North Alabama. | Ole Miss Athletics
Ole Miss freshman Madi George had plenty to smile about after setting a new single-season freshman home run record against North Alabama. | Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss Freshman Madi George Hits Historic Mark in Win

BY Taylor Hodges

Ole Miss softball has a potential star-in-the-making that could be a household name by the time she’s done.

Ole Miss beat North Alabama 7-3, which is fine and useful and keeps the Rebels moving in the right direction.

The real headline is Madi George breaking the freshman home run record. She did it in a way that makes you think this might be the first of several marks she’ll chase down before she’s done here.

Two swings. Five RBI. Home runs 15 and 16. And the sense that this is only the beginning.

George passed Lauren Grill’s 2007 freshman record with her second blast of the night, a towering shot to center that felt like the moment everyone had been waiting for. She’s been flirting with the record for weeks, and the way she’s been swinging, it always felt like a matter of when, not if.

Now it’s hers, and she still has a month of softball left.

The rest of the night played out like a team making sure the spotlight stayed on its star. Kyra Aycock gave Ole Miss six steady innings, forcing ground balls and double plays like she was on autopilot.

The offense did enough around George to keep the pressure on. Kennedy Bunker singled. Persy Llamas walked. George cashed them in with an opposite field shot in the third.

Later, the Rebels nearly ended things early with two more runs in the sixth, and if not for a sharp liner snagged by North Alabama, George might have added even more to her total.

North Alabama made things interesting with three runs in the seventh, but Lilly Whitten closed it out without letting the night drift off script.

Because the script was always going to be about George.

Freshman records aren’t supposed to fall this casually. They’re not supposed to look this sustainable either. She’s already at 16, and nothing about her approach suggests she’s anywhere near her ceiling.

If anything, she looks like someone who’s going to spend the next few years taking aim at whatever record happens to be in front of her.

Ole Miss heads to LSU this weekend, and SEC play will bring its own challenges.

But the Rebels walk in with a freshman who’s already rewriting the program’s history and showing signs she might rewrite more than that.

The win was nice. The bigger story is that Ole Miss has a star who’s just getting started.

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