Jake Davis
The Ole Miss softball team picked up their second win of the season when they defeated Mississippi Valley State 11-0 in their home opener on Wednesday.
The Rebels are now 2-8 this season — their only other win being against Colorado State in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Feb. 13.
Ole Miss run-ruled the Devils after five innings, hammering the Mississippi Valley pitching right out of the gate.
Outfielder Abbey Latham began the streak early for Ole Miss, driving in Nyomi Jones on a double to centerfield. Latham scored on an error later in the inning to put the Rebs up 2-0 in the first frame.
Junior lefty Anna Borgen was nearly perfect in her first start of the season. She allowed the leadoff runner on because of an error she committed, but she settled in quickly to retire nine straight batters.
She finished her night with three innings pitched, no runs, no hits, no walks and four strikeouts.
After a quiet second inning, the Ole Miss offense started brewing again in the third when freshman Paige Smith walked and junior Jessica Puk was hit by a pitch. Smith scored during the next at-bat, putting Amanda Roth in position to blow the game open with runners on the corners with just one out.
Roth never got a chance to drive in Puk as she swiped home on a daring double steal to extend the Ole Miss lead to 4-0. Roth then singled to left and advanced to second on a poor throw that also allowed Autumn Gillespie to score from second.
After a pitching change, Roth stole third base and then scored another unearned run after the Mississippi Valley catcher made an errant throw. Three batters later, the Rebels scored for the fifth time in the inning to break the game open at 7-0.
A bases-loaded triple from Roth in the next inning put Ole Miss up by double-digits, setting up a mercy-rule scenario. The Devils went down in the fifth as the Rebels walked away from their first home game with an 11-0 victory.
Roth led offensively with two hits in three at-bats, driving in four runs and scoring two more in the winning effort.
Jones also had a solid night swinging the bat, going 2-2 with an RBI and a run scored. Ole Miss is set for another busy weekend with five games in Birmingham, Alabama, for the Blazer Classic.
The Rebels will play doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday, facing No. 8 Oklahoma State and UAB on Friday before taking on No. 10 Louisiana-Lafayette and UAB again on Saturday. They will end their weekend with another game against Louisiana-Lafayette on Sunday morning.
All three opponents this weekend started their 2020 campaigns strongly, and the Rebs have a tall task ahead of them if they want to come out of this weekend with a chance to get back near 0.500 on the season.
