Ole Miss advances to winner's bracket of Salt Lake City Regional with opening win over Baylor
The Rebels might be getting hot in another sport this summer as the Ole Miss softball team got its 2023 NCAA Tournament off to a strong start on Friday.
In one of the first games of the tournament Ole Miss defeated Baylor 3-0 in the opening game of the Salt Lake City Regional. The Rebels are the No. 3 seed in the four-team bracket while the Bears are the No. 2 seed.
Facing the fourth best team in the Big 12 this season Ole Miss is used to facing stiff competition every weekend with life in the Southeastern Conference and showed their mettle.
Ole Miss had ace Catelyn Riley in the circle who worked 6.1 innings, giving up three hits while walking one Bear batter and striking out two more. Baylor could not touch Riley through the first five innings but did offer up its biggest threat in the sixth.
With bases loaded and the Bears trailing by three runs Riley managed to get Sydney Collazos to pop up to Rebels shortsop Mikayla Allee to strand the bases full.
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Aynslie Furbush came in to relieve Riley in the seventh inning, getting the final two outs of the game to secure the victory and stranding runners at the corners with the tying run at the plate.
At the plate Ole Miss got the day started with a two-run home run by Lexie Brady in the top of the second inning. Paige Smith had a RBI-triple that scored Tate Whitley to add on the insurance run in the fifth inning.
Ole Miss (31-26) advances to the winners’ bracket of the Salt Lake City Regional and will play the winner of No. 15 National Seed Utah and Southern Illinois on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The Rebels are a win away from advancing to Sunday’s regional final.
