The Ole Miss softball team (25-17, 8-7) will travel to face Texas A&M (26-11, 5-7) in a clash of SEC foes this weekend, April 16-18. 

The team will look to bounce back after a series win last weekend against South Carolina. The Rebels started out the Friday game strong, beating the Gamecocks 8-0 in five innings. It was a tight battle for the first four innings as the Rebels only held a one-point lead. In the top of the fourth and fifth inning, the bats got hot, and the team scored seven unanswered to force the game to be called early. 

Junior Savannah Diederich was electric on the mound, putting on her best career pitching show allowing only one hit and throwing seven strikes. 

The next day on Saturday, the team didn’t let up and took the series, winning 8-5. Going into the bottom of the fourth inning, the outlook was shaky as South Carolina was up by two. Sophomore Paige Smith started things off by getting on first by taking a hit from the pitch. Sophomore Nyomi Jones kept things going with a bunt, and then Senior Sydney Guiterrez slammed the ball to left field to get two Rebels home to tie it up. 

That wasn’t enough for the Senior Gabby Alvarez though, as she decided to put the game out of reach with a three-run hit that sealed the victory for the Rebels.

With the series already decided, the Rebels dropped the Sunday finale 10-1, but their weekend performance was enough to continue the high hopes for the team’s season.

In other news for the softball team, the SEC league announced its SEC honors of the week with freshman Blaise Biringer earning SEC Freshman of the Week. The rookie posted a .545 average during a week of three wins and one loss for the Rebels. Birringer tallied six hits while driving in three runs and scoring three. 

Biringer’s big break came during the Central Arkansas game on Tuesday, April 6, where the Rebels won 4-1 during their midweek matchup. The freshman hit a ball down the left-field and became the first Rebel player with an inside-the-park home run since alumni did Kylan Becker during the NCAA Oxford Regional in 2017.

During the weekend series against the South Carolina Gamecocks, Biringer went 4-for-8 and helped the Rebels with their 2-for-3 win for their eighth consecutive home victory against a conference team. 

Scouting the Aggies for this weekend’s series, the Aggies dropped the series against Auburn during the weekend of April 9-11. In game one, the Aggies lost 6-2. However, the second day meant victory, as the Aggies posted a 4-1 win to rally back to tie the series. The Aggies lost their momentum on the final day of the series and posted a 3-1 loss to Auburn.

The Rebels will return to the diamond this weekend at Texas A&M with the first pitch on Friday, April 16 at 6 p.m.