One Step Away: Trachsel, Ole Miss take aim at CWS history after Super berth
Ole Miss softball is a Super Regional win away from its first-ever trip to the College World Series.
The Rebels over the weekend won three of four games in the Tucson Regional. They knocked out host Arizona with a 7-3 win Sunday night to advance to just their third Super in program history.
The Wildcats (48-13) were the No. 13 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and had won 23 consecutive Regionals.
Ole Miss (40-18) launched four home runs in the winner-take-all final, including two from Aliyah Binford. The Rebels had five round-trippers on the day. Binford clubbed another in Game 1.
The Rebels face off against SEC rival and No. 4 overall seed Arkansas (43-12) in a best-of-three series beginning May 23. First pitch of the opener is 7 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
“Heck of a day, heck of a tournament,” said Jamie Trachsel, who’s in her first Super as Ole Miss head coach. She was hired in 2020 following the ugly departure of Mike Smith.
Trachsel came to Ole Miss from Minnesota. She took the Gophers to their first College World Series in the NCAA era in 2019. The Rebels in the preseason were picked to finish 14th out of 15 teams in the SEC.
Trachsel, continued: “When we met with our team this morning, we just said be prepared to be here as long as it takes, if it’s 21 innings or whatever it is. I’m really proud of the resiliency we showed and the mentality and mindset we had transitioning from Game 1.”
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Ole Miss won its first two regional games, meaning the Rebels had two opportunities on Sunday to punch their ticket to the next round. However, Arizona dominated the first, 10-1.
The Rebels flipped the script in the finale.
Binford hit one of two Rebel homers in a four-run first inning. Ole Miss never looked back.
“It’s kind of a message we’ve had for a while now — control what you can and surrender to what you can’t,” Binford said. “Obviously (Game 1) got out of our control, but we were able to control the way we answered back. We let it flush and were just able to move on and go to the next game.”
Binford was one of a record six All-South Region selections for Ole Miss. The Rebels are in their eighth consecutive NCAA Tournament. They’ve been all five seasons under Trachsel but last made a Super in 2019.
Ole Miss only continues to pile on more accomplishments to what’s already been a wildly successful year. The Rebels had standout wins over No. 1 Tennessee, No. 10 Arkansas and No 6/4 Florida. They reached the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Binford leads Ole Miss with 54 RBI, tied for the single-season Ole Miss record.
Lexie Brady’s 16 home runs are already the most ever for a Rebel.
“I keep saying the word proud, but we have so many new pieces here,” Trachsel said. “This is just a credit to the new staff that’s here, the transfers. We have eight of them (and) eight freshmen. Blending all the pieces together.
“I just feel like we were a team that just kept getting better throughout the year. I really thought we’d continue to get better and were ascending at the right time. We felt like not matter who we were going to play against we liked our chances — and that was no different if we were at home or on the road. We welcomed the challenge [and] didn’t have to be anyone we’re not. We’d proven we’re good enough; we just had to play our best when it mattered most.”
