Feb. 21, 2013

OXFORD, Miss. – After playing in two tournaments in Honolulu and Mobile, Ala., now it’s the Ole Miss softball team’s turn to play host. The Rebels (5-8) will welcome Drake, McNeese State, Middle Tennessee State, Mississippi Valley State and Tennessee-Martin to the Ole Miss Softball Complex to take part in the Red & Blue Classic from Friday-Sunday.

The Rebels will open the tournament Friday with McNeese State at 6 p.m. CT. Ole Miss will face UT-Martin at 1:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, and Drake at 3:45 p.m. CT. The Rebels will close out the tournament with a pair of games Sunday at 1:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. against Middle Tennessee State and Mississippi Valley State, respectively.

“I expect us to come out and continue to grow and continue to get better,” Ole Miss softball head coach Windy Thees said. “We have a couple kids in some slumps and they need to get out of it because they’re starting on our defense. I just expect us to keep building and keep getting stronger and get lots of wins.”

Ole Miss has played all five tournament teams before in its history. The Rebels are 0-1 all-time against Drake, 1-3 against McNeese State, 4-3 against Middle Tennessee, 6-3 against Mississippi Valley State and 5-1 against Tennessee-Martin.

Junior center fielder RT Cantillo leads Ole Miss at the plate this season with a .452 batting average, 14 hits, one home run and a team-high tying 10 RBI. Sophomore third baseman Allison Brown is second on the team with a .375 batting average. Brown has hit an SEC-leading nine doubles this season, just one shy of her 2012 total, and a team-high tying 10 RBI.

The Rebels split a doubleheader against Southern Miss on Wednesday, dropping the first game 7-4 before coming back to take game two 3-0. Senior pitcher Erinn Jayjohn got her first start of the season in game two of the doubleheader, throwing a complete game shutout and striking out five batters.

Sophomore Lauren Lindsey has recorded a hit in each of her last five at bats, and was 3-3 in the Rebels’ two games combined Wednesday.

For all Ole Miss softball news and information, including live stats and a recap of each of Ole Miss’ games at the Red & Blue Classic, go to OleMissSports.com. For live stats and box scores of each of the games at the Red & Blue Classic, visit the tournament central page. Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissSoftball and on Facebook at Ole Miss Softball.