Ole Miss fans can exhale for now. With the tying run on second base and two outs in the seventh, all 3,147 fans in attendance watched Arkansas right fielder Kailey Wyckoff's walk-off attempt fall into the glove of Ole Miss right fielder Taylor Malvin, positioned just short of the right field wall.
The 9-7 victory in game one of the Fayetteville Super Regional is the first in Ole Miss program history. They went 0-2 in their previous Super Regional appearances in 2017 and 2019.
The Rebels scored but fell behind quickly after Arkansas ended the first inning with a 3-1 lead. Ole Miss followed with eight runs over the next three innings and took a 9-4 lead to the bottom of the fourth. Arkansas scattered three more runs across the final three frames and threatened in the seventh, but Ole Miss held on to take game one.
The two biggest swings came from pinch-hitter Taylor Roman, who had her game-tying double in the second, and third baseman Ashton Lansdell and her two-run homer to put Ole Miss up 7-3 in the fourth. Aliyah Binford also homered in the first to open the scoring. Overall, seven different players recorded hits, continuing their postseason offensive surge.
Ole Miss is one win away from reaching the NCAA Women's College World Series for the first time in program history. Head coach Jamie Trachsel is looking for her second WCWS appearance after leading Minnesota to Oklahoma City in 2019. Ole Miss will face Arkansas in game two on Saturday at 8:00 pm CT on ESPN+. A game three will be scheduled for Sunday if necessary.