KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Kaitlin Lee threw her eighth shutout of the season, a two-hit gem that lifted the No. 8 seed and No. 19 Ole Miss softball team to a 2-0 victory against No. 1 seed and top-ranked Florida in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.
Lee, a junior right-hander, threw her eighth shutout to break the Ole Miss single-season record. The victory enabled Ole Miss (38-18) to advance to the semifinals of the SEC tournament for the first time. Ole Miss will take on No. 5 seed and No. 15 Alabama, which beat No. 4 seed and No. 11 Texas A&M 2-1 in 10 innings at 2 p.m. today.
Lee’s 21st complete game puts her sixth in school history. With her 18th win, she inches closer to Madi Osias’ single-season record of 23 victories. It also marked her 24th start allowing two earned runs or less in 31 starts.
Lee took a perfect game to the fourth and didn’t allow Florida (50-6) to get a runner to second base. The junior college transfer, who is in her first SEC season, struck out four and received help from a defense that played errorless ball.
Ole Miss had seven hits against starting pitcher Delanie Gourley, including two each by Elantra Cox and Dylinn Stancil. Stancil had a two-run double down the right-field line in the first inning to account for the scoring.
Cox gave Ole Miss the spark it needed from the top with a leadoff single. Kylan Becker put pressure on the defense with her speed, forcing an error by Aleshia Ocasio at third base. Ashton Lampton moved the runners with a sacrifice bunt that set the stage for Stancil.
The win was Ole Miss’ ninth against Florida, and first in three years.
It was the Rebels’ second win against a No. 1 ranked team. The first also was against Florida in a regular-season game in 2014.
“I think the biggest thing to take away from today’s game is that Ole Miss came out and played a good game,” Florida coach Tim Walton said. “They got that one hit, and that’s what it’s all about when you get down to post-season type games with post-season type atmospheres. It’s going to come down to one hit. They got it and we didn’t, so give them a lot of credit. I thought Delanie (Gourley) did good, and I thought we swung the bat pretty average. We need to get better if we are going to make a late charge into the postseason.”
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