Bulldogs strike early to eliminate Rebels
May 12—TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A physical Mississippi State team hit Ole Miss ace Anna Borgen early and often, and the Bulldogs eliminated Ole Miss from the SEC softball tournament with a 3-1 win on Thursday.
MSU picked up its eighth-straight win and proved it was a different team from the one that was swept by the Rebels on the opening weekend of conference play in mid-March.
The Bulldogs (33-22) advance to face No. 1 seed Florida Thursday morning at 11. The Rebels (34-20) will learn their NCAA Tournament destination on Sunday afternoon.
The Bulldogs had only four hits in three appearances against Borgen in the regular season. This time they had six hits before Borgen had gone through the lineup twice.
Chole Malau'ulu, Fa Leilua and Carter Spexarth greeted Borgen with three-straight hits to start the game.
When Borgen walked Mia Davis the Bulldogs were on the board. After an RBI groundout the lead was 2-0.
It became 3-0 when Spexarth led off the third with a home run to left.
"That was the first SEC series. We were young. Having all the SEC at-bats under our belts and the experience, knowing that we could beat her, that we were better than her and that we had all this film on her made all the difference," said MSU designated player Carter Spexarth, who finished 3 for 4.
Borgen was not commanding the outer half of the plate, and when she missed inside the Bulldogs were unforgiving.
"They've got some holes in their swings that we chose to attack," Ole Miss assistant coach Katie Rietkovich Browder said. "They had a game plan against Anna just as we had a game plan against their hitters.
"Their game plan worked out. They were successful sitting on a pitch they were looking for."
Ole Miss reliever Savannah Diedrich pitched three scoreless innings, but the Rebels could not break through against MSU closer Alyssa Loza, who earned her fifth save with 2 2/3 innings of hitless, scoreless relief.
While Borgen struggled Emily Williams cruised early.
When the Rebels finally broke through against Williams they made mistakes on the bases.
Sydney Gutierrez and Abbey Latham had back-to-back doubles in the fourth, the first two hits allowed by Davidson, but pinch-runner Kelsha Loftin was caught in a rundown after Latham's hit.
The Rebels got on the board when Latham scored on a throwing error after a fly ball from Blaise Biringer.
With runners at second and third in the fifth against Loza the Rebels made the second out at the plate when Tate Whitley couldn't beat a throw from MSU shortstop Madisyn Kennedy.
Ole Miss had one more chance with two in scoring position, but Jessica Puk popped out to end the inning.
"We know we're a different team than we were in March. We're playing a lot better ball. We look at this as almost starting over," MSU coach Samantha Ricketts said. "We're going to try to ride our momentum."
