History-making Ellis takes long-winding road to Arkansas

To understand how Ellis got to this point, you have to first understand how she got to Arkansas. Ellis spent her first two seasons at Auburn and specifically remembers a turning point in her career.

"My sophomore year [at Auburn] we played a series at Georgia," Ellis said. "We lost the series and it was really emotional. I remember going to lunch or dinner with my parents and and I just broke down crying with them. I had just worked my tail off that whole weekend. I deserved more than this."

When Ellis hit the portal after her sophomore season in which she hit .275 with 14 homers, Courtney Deifel was the first coach to call.

It was a relief to Ellis, because despite hitting 14 homers, she knew that there was more in her game. When a program of Arkansas' caliber called, a huge weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

"It was a risk," Ellis said about entering the portal. "You never know if the grass is really greener on the other side or is it like this everywhere. It was really nice to just feel wanted by the coaches because my coach [at Auburn] was the opposite of that."

Ellis always had the talent and raw power to make it at the top level. Growing up, sometimes her team would force her to bat from the left side instead of her natural right side so no one would get hurt.

It still took time though for all the talent to manifest itself in results. Her recuitment started early and Ellis committed to Texas A&M as a freshman in high school before the scholarship offer changed her junior year and she had to reopen up her recruitment.

"There were times in high school during the recruiting process where I had doubts in myself," Ellis said. "Getting tossed around by schools is really difficult when you're like 14. It was kind of messing with my self-confidence."

Those days of lacking self-confidence are long gone. Even though Ellis may be confined to just a few swings, she now has the confidence in her teammates to do most of the damage on her behalf.

"There actually was a moment when [teammate] Courtney [Day] was like 'You should step and hit that,' Deifel said. "Bri was like 'That would be stupid.' The exchange of I'm just going to take my walk and get on base."

Arkansas is reaping all the rewards of a confident Ellis. Along with her 26 homers, Ellis is hitting .491 with a .667 on-base percentage and a 1.246 slugging percentage. If Ellis is able to keep her current pace, she would shatter both SEC records for on-base and slugging percentage. The current records are held by Alisa Goler (Georgia, .994 slugging, 2009) and Tanya Callahan (Tennessee, .630 on base, 2008).

Ellis just has one message for her younger self seeing the historic season that she's put together.

"I'm glad you got your batting average up finally," Ellis said.

Arkansas faces No. 4 seed Tennessee in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday and will be broadcast on SEC Network.

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