Sarah HendersonOle Miss Softball went 3-2 in the Stacy Winsburg Memorial Tournament in Westwood, California, over the weekend.
The Rebels’ West Coast trip featured wins over UC Riverside, California Polytechnic and Oregon State as well as losses to No. 2 UCLA and Boise State.
The Ole Miss offense took over on Friday. The Rebels beat UC Riverside 11-3 first after being down early in the game. The Highlanders’ lead was short-lived, as Kylan Becker and Jessica Puk scored in the first and second innings to tie the score.
Starting pitcher Brittany Finney later hit a home run to take the lead, and the Rebels never looked back. Finney hit two home runs for the first time in her career. Ole Miss scored five runs in the fifth to force a run-rule victory.
The Rebels earned their second victory of the day with a 5-2 win over Cal Poly. With the Mustangs up 2-1 in the early going, the Rebels overcame a deficit for the second time with Ally Mena and Becker batting in runs in the second inning.
A sacrifice fly from Abbey Latham in the seventh extended the Rebels’ lead with Mikayla Allee and Becker scoring. Molly Jacobsen then shut the door on the Cal Poly offense, earning a save for Ole Miss.
The Rebels split their Saturday doubleheader against Oregon State and UCLA.
Molly Jacobsen shut down Oregon State in the second start of her career, giving Ole Miss a 2-0 victory to start the day.
Ole Miss led from the start, as Latham brought in Becker with an RBI single. Becker scored again in the third after stealing second and reaching home off a Finney RBI.
The two runs turned out to be enough for the Rebels, as Jacobsen never allowed a baserunner to advance past second base.
The Rebels failed to bring down the host of the tournament on the tail end of the doubleheader however, losing 4-0 to No. 2 UCLA.
Mena was on third base in the third inning but was unable to score off of a bunt from Allee. UCLA scored their first run in the next inning, taking the lead.
The Rebels had another opportunity to score in the fourth inning with pinch runner Kelsha Loftin in scoring position, but they couldn’t reach home to tie the game. The Bruins scored two runs off of back-to-back errors from Ole Miss in the sixth to secure the victory.
The Rebels came back on Sunday for a game against Boise State. Ole Miss’s six first-inning errors were critical in their 6-4 loss to the Broncos. The Rebels took the lead early with runs from Becker and Kaylee Horton in the first, but they lost the advantage when the Broncos scored five runs off of six errors.
Ole Miss was able to cut the lead to one behind a home run from Latham, but the Broncos extended the lead to two in the fourth inning.
The Rebels are 6-3 overall in the young season after the Stacy Winsburg Memorial Tournament.
Ole Miss will travel to Austin next weekend for the Texas Invitational. They’ll face Tulsa and Sam Houston State on Friday, then come back on Saturday for another game against Sam Houston State and a matchup with Texas. The Rebels will round out the weekend with a second game against the host on Sunday.
