Bulldogs Travel To Madison To Meet Ole Miss In M&F Bank Fastpitch Classic
March 31, 2009 | Softball
STARKVILLE, Miss. ? Fresh off a Southeastern Conference series win over No. 9 Tennessee, the Mississippi State softball team travels to Madison on Wednesday to meet in-state rival Ole Miss at 6:30 p.m. in the M&F Bank Fastpitch Classic. First pitch for the non-conference game is set for 6:30 p.m. from Liberty Park, and it will be broadcast live on WMSV 91.1 FM and online at www.wmsv.msstate.edu.
The Bulldogs are coming off a 3-1 week that improved head coach Jay Miller's squad to 17-16 overall and 2-10 in the SEC. Ole Miss improved to 15-18 overall, 4-12 in league play with a pair of weekend victories over Arkansas in Oxford.
The two in-state schools have faced each other 42 times previously, with the Bulldogs holding a 26-16 advantage. The two squads have met in the Jackson area four times previously, with the Rebels claiming three of the games. State won the lone trip to Madison, a 5-2 decision in 2007.
The two squads met at Freedom Ridge Park in Ridgeland last season with Ole Miss prevailing 2-1 after State swept the regular-season conference series. This will be the third year of the game being a non-conference meeting after the 2005 and 2006 SEC series were split with a game each in Oxford, Starkville and Ridgeland.
Junior Chelsea Bramlett's SEC-best .509 average leads a Bulldog squad that comes in hitting at a .290 clip. Bramlett, who also paces the league in hits (55) and stolen bases (35), has hit four doubles and two triples on the year while driving in eight runs and scoring a team-high 33 times.
Sophomore Ali Bainbridge earned SEC Player of the Week honors after hitting .500 with a double, a home run, six RBI and two runs scored. Bainbridge tied for the team home run lead (4) on Sunday with her fifth-inning blast that broke a 6-6 tie and led the Bulldogs to the series-clinching win over Tennessee.
The Vestavia Hills, Ala., native's stellar week bumped her season average to .340. She has driven in a team-best 28 runs on the year while tying freshman Ka'ili Smith for the team lead in doubles with seven. Smith hit at a .333 clip last week to raise her season average to .322. Smith, a native of Kapolei, Hawaii, has also contributed four triples and 19 RBI during her rookie campaign.
Freshman Lindsey Dunlap picked up all three of last week's wins in the circle to improve to 9-9 overall and earn SEC Freshman of the Week honors. The Hueytown, Ala., native has a 3.10 ERA after surrendering 57 runs (52 earned) on 110 hits with 95 strikeouts over 117 1/3 innings.
Senior Kelsey Nurnberg sits at 8-5 on the year with a 3.86 ERA. An Ankeny, Iowa, native, Nurnberg has allowed 54 runs (43 earned) on 96 hits with 54 strikeouts over 78 innings.
The State pitching staff will meet an Ole Miss team that team that enters Wednesday night's contest hitting at a .237 clip. Corrine Doornberg paces UM at the plate with a .282 average, but Lauren Grill, a .278 hitter, paces the Rebels in doubles (7), home runs (6) and RBI (21).
The Ole Miss pitching staff has compiled a 3.07 ERA this season, with Becky Nye leading the way with a 10-11 mark and 2.50 earned-run average. Nye has seen the majority of the innings for the Rebels this season, tossing 145 1/3 innings while surrendering 68 runs (52 earned) with 85 strikeouts.
