Arkansas-Ole Miss Super Regional: Tracking Ellis' place in history

Arkansas looks to accomplish program history by advancing to the Women's College World Series (WCWS) for the first time in 28 years since the team was established in 1997.

Ole Miss will be trying to do the exact same, with the two teams combining for seven Super Regional appearances, losing all of them.

Here's how the numbers stack up (Arkansas-Ole Miss). The Rebels took two out of three from the Razorbacks in Oxford in the regular season.

Batting Average: .327/.310
Runs: 421/340
Hits: 473/471
Extra-base hits:169/154
ERA: 2.94/3.21
Stolen Bases: 37-40/71-83
Opponents Average: .214/.244

Three other storylines to watch ahead of a historic weekend in Fayetteville:

She went 0-for-5 at the plate in the regional, but still got on base seven times in the three games out of the No. 3 spot via six walks and a hit by pitch.

Part of the conundrum is who to hit behind Ellis to offer her the most protection to allow Ellis to get more pitches to hit. Since Ellis moved up to the No. 3 spot for good on March 28.

Third baseman Ella McDowell and designated player Courtney Day have split duties hitting cleanup. McDowell hit for 15 straight games behind Ellis before Day took over midway through the SEC Tournament against Tennessee.

"You have to think about what's going to protect Bri to force their hand a little bit more of pitching to her and giving her pitches," coach Courtney Deifel said before the regional. "At least making them think about what they're going to have to face if they go around her.

"Courtney was in that position until she just tweaked her knee a little bit when we were in the Florida series [in the first week of April]. She wasn't available those two days, and Ella stepped up in that moment and handled it beautifully."

Day had a solid regional behind Ellis, going 3-for-10 with two walks and 3 RBIs.

"We feel really lucky because we have a few options that we can go behind Bri that protect her not only with numbers but with mindset also," Deifel said. "You have to be able to handle the emotion of getting pitched around [and] getting pitched to."

She struck out five and required just 96 pitches to finish her outing. Although her ERA has jumped from 1.02 to 3.45 since the Hogs last saw her, she got the last four outs against No. 13 Arizona to clinch Ole Miss' ticket to Fayetteville.

She also had a good series against Ole Miss in the regular season, going 3-for-10 with an RBI.

First pitch between Ole Miss and Arkansas is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

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