Ole Miss beats Arkansas 7-4 to win super regional, clinch program's first WCWS berth

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Lair Beautae and Lexie Brady each hit a home run and Aliyah Binford allowed one run over 5 2/3 innings to help Mississippi beat No. 4 seed Arkansas 7-4 to win the best-of-three Fayetteville Super Regional on Sunday.

Ole Miss (42-19) clinched a berth in the Women’s College World Series for the first time in program history and will face No. 12 overall seed Texas Tech on Thursday. The Rebels won 9-7 on Friday before the Razorbacks (44-14) fought off elimination with a 4-0 win Saturday in Game 2.

Binford (11-3) came on in the second inning gave up two hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Starter Brianna Lopez gave up three runs on two hits with four walks over 1 1/3 innings.

Mackenzie Pickens led off the fourth with an infield single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jaden Pone to give Ole Miss a 5-4 lead.

Pone walked to lead off the game and Beautae followed with a home run to spark a four-run first for the Bulldogs.

Raigan Kramer, Bri Ellis and Courtney Day each drew a one-out walk before Kailey Wyckoff struck out swinging and Ella McDowell walked to score Kramer and make it 4-1. Brianna Lopez got Atalyia Rijo to foul out to end the inning.

Ellis drew a two-out walk to load the bases in the second, Day followed with a two-RBI single before Ellis scored on a single by Wyckoff to tie it at 4-4.

Pickens hit a two-out RBI single to make it 6-4 in the fifth before Payton Burnham replaced starter Robyn Herron with runners at second and third and struck out Ashton Landsell to limit the damage.

Brady's solo shot in the seventh capped the scoring.

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