University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

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HEARTBREAKER, DREAM MAKER The 2004 Lady Rebels fought their way through a strenuous SEASON, BUT THEY USED De DeJuSTICE TO THEIR ADVANTAGE ivnllni In TYLER NELSON ilinluoia iliivl !„■ MATTHEW SHARPE spKf Ole Miss ' s overall record of 15-37 and 8-21 in the Southeastern CDiilcreiice, the Rebels had a number of stand out players and memorable games f() 2004 season. DeDeJustice was named to the All-SEC second team by the conference ' s coaches. She led the team in batting average, hitting .293 on the yean She also led the way with 30 RBIs and seven doubles. Senior Britte Hardy was a great spark plug for the Rebels, batting first in the order The Peachtree City, Ga. native was second on the team with a .272 average. She also led the team with 43 hits and four triples. Mandy Ott, from Hillsboro, Ore., hit .244 on the .season and drove in nine runs. In the |)itching department, Mary Jane Callahan paced the Rebels. Callahan had a 2.07 LKj and an 1 1 - 1 ti record. She also had 1 76 strikeouts in 20(1 innings pitched. Dana Brill made her mark on the mound with her 2.60 ER. ' and 93 strikeouts in 126.2 innings pitched. Ole Miss had a number of memorable moments in the 2004 season. 356 I The Ole Miss 2005

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BASEBALL ■] Alter llic Arkansas Stale hit ( u|), the Rebels extendefl their st hool- reeorcl star! to I ! ' - 1 . Iik hided on that run was a school-record pitching string of 39.2 consecutive scoreless innings that saw four straight shutfujts and spanned six games. C)le Miss began Southeastern Clonference play by sweeping Vanderbilt and taking lwo-(jf-three at Alabama and Mississippi .State to set the pace in the race for the SEC crown and climb to a schof)l-record No. 4 position in the polls. Olc Miss didn ' t drcjp an SEC series until they ost two one-run games in a seven-inning doubleheader against Auburn. The next weekend, the Rebels used a pair of game-winning home runs by Alex Presley to sweep then-SEC leader Tennessee and regain the conference lead. On April 18, Ole Miss stood at 31-6. Then came a six-game losing streak that included a three-game sweep at Georgia. The Rebels were reeling, and they dropped two-of-three at South Carolina the next weekend. Ole Miss got the turnaround it needed by taking two-of-three from Arkansas. The Rebels followed that up with a three-game sweep at Florida to put them into a three-way tie with Arkansas and Georgia for the SEC crown heading into the season finale series against LSU. Ole Miss rode a Charlie Babineaux home run to a 7-6 victory in game one. It would be Ole Miss ' last win of the season. LSU won 1 1-4 on Saturday and 14-6 Sunday to knock Ole Miss into a tie for third place in the conference with an 18-12 league mark. The 18 SEC wins set a school record. The Rebels couldn ' t escape the loser ' s bracket at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., falling to South Carolina and Arkansas. Good news came a couple of days later when the NCAA named Ole Miss one of 16 schools to host a regional tournament. The regional featured the top-seeded Rebels, second-seeded Washington, third-seeded Tulane and fourth-seeded Western Kentucky and was the first regional ever to be hosted by the Ole Miss baseball program. Ever since I came here, one of the goals was to host a regional, Rebel catcher Barry Gunther said prior to the tournament. No one will remember that we didn ' t win the SEC or win 40 games after this weekend. This is what it ' s all about. The Rebel bats never could get going though. They were knocked into the loser ' s bracket wdth a 1-0 loss to Western Kentucky in the opening game. The next day, they lost 7-2 to Washington. A tremendous year by the kids, Ole Miss head baseball coach Mike Bianco said after the Washington loss. For it to end like this is disappointing, but we ' ll be back. The Rebels finished the year 39-2 1 . Stephen Head led the Rebels with a .346 batting average, 13 home runs and 53 RBIs. Babineaux also hit 13 home runs. Pitching ace Mark Holliman posted a 9-3 record and 3.05 ERA. Head was selected a first team Ail-American, was one of five finalists for Golden Spikes Award and was SEC Co-Player of the Year. Holliman and Head were each chosen first team All-SEC. Attendance surpassed the 100,000 mark for first time in school history. The Rebels drew the top two series crowds in Swayze Field history against LSU and Tennessee and the top four single-game crowds in Swayze Field history, including 9,260 fans against Tennessee on April 17. Athletics | 355

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FRESHMAN MARY JANE Callahan, No. 11, a left-handed pitcher for the 2004 season was the fourth best batter on the team. She pitches for the win against SEC rival Arkansas. AFTER PLOWING THE BALL No. 1 Rebecca Mclntire, a sophomore infielder from Chatsworth, Calif., runs her hardest in hopes of not being tagged at first in the home win against Birmingham Southern. One of the highlights from last year was the first ever series win over the No. 25 South Carolina Gamecocks. It also marked the first time in the program ' s history that the Rebels had claimed a series over a ranked opponent. After splitting a double header on April 24, the Rebels won a thrilling game against the Gamecocks 2-1 on the next day. Mary Jane Callahan came up big on the mound and at the plate. She worked 4.1 innings, striking out three batters and walking two She only allowed one run on four hits. In the batter ' s box, Callahan drove in what would prove to be the game winning run. Another notable series was the Rebels ' series win over Arkansas. It was the first-ever series win over the Lady ' Backs in the series ' history. In the first game of the series on April 13, the Lady Rebs came from behind after holding an early lead against Arkansas to claim a 5-4 win in 1 1 innings. With the game tied at four in the bottom of the 1 1 th inning, the Rebels came up with some timely hitting and smart base running to notch the win. Brittany Warner was moved to third after a sacrifice bunt from Rebecca Mclntire, Desiree Layman drilled a single to center field to score W ' arner and seal the win. Justice officially finished the three-game series against Arkansas 2-for-3 at the plate with two home runs. She drove in three runs and scored three runs. The junior was intentionally walked nine times in the series. The Rebels also took the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats to the brink before dropping the game 3-2. Ole Miss scattered seven hits over the course of the game but it wasn ' t enough in their second game of the Arizona Pepsi Classic on Feb. 6. Andrea Brahs was 2 for 3 against the Wildcats. Ole Miss hosted the Rebel Easton Invitational but mother nature had other plans as the tournament came to a close. The Rebels defeated Indiana State, then dropped games to Southern Illinois and Tulsa. Then due to a snow storm hit that hit on Feb. 15, the final da)- of the Invitational was called off Athletics I 357