The Ole Miss Softball team played a double-header versus Nevada and Kansas City in Honolulu, O’ahu, Hawaii for their second day of the Paradise Classic to start off the season.
After an unfortunate opening day loss to BYU, the Rebels kept their heads up and looked on to their next game on Friday, Feb. 9 against the Nevada Wolf Pack. After a quiet first two innings, Nevada eventually came out swinging first, with a double to left field scoring the first run of the game.
They eventually tacked on another run via sacrifice fly out, and just like that the Rebels were down 2-0. Nevertheless, Ole Miss wasted no time giving a response of their own in the form of an RBI single from second baseman Angelina DeLeon.
The Rebels then scored another run in the 6th inning, tying the game at two a piece. Ole Miss pitcher Makenna Kliethermes performed well consistently after giving up Nevada’s only two runs in the 3rd, pitching lights out for the remainder of her full game outing.
Once in extra innings, the ninth batter, Ryan Starr, had a moment that every kid playing baseball or softball dreams up. She came up to bat in the bottom of the 8th with bases loaded and knocked in the final run for the walk off win.
With lots of momentum after walking it off in their first win of the season, less than an hour later, the Rebels were playing game two of the day against Kansas City. In the 1st inning, Ole Miss gave up their only run of the game to a throwing error by Rebel right fielder Jamie Mackay. However, she would not let this error get in her head as she went on to have a 4-4 game at the plate.
In the Rebels next plate appearance following this error, lead off batter Jalia Lassiter hit a bases clearing double that put the Rebels up 3-1 in the 2nd inning. After this, the bats only continued to get hotter as the game progressed.
In inning number three, Ole Miss hit back-to-back-to-back home runs, all over the left field wall. This put the Rebels up 6-1 in only the 3rd inning. The next two innings for the Rebels were relatively quiet, still scoring and giving up no runs.
That was until catcher Lexie Brady, who hit one of the previous home runs, called the game with a three-run bomb to dead center, ending the game in the 6th inning with a score of 9-1.
After achieving their first two wins of the season from a walk off then run rule, Ole Miss continued to play a double header against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors to close out the Paradise Classic.
