KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Ole Miss softball completed its Cinderella run in the 2017 SEC Softball Tournament Saturday night, topping No. 21 LSU, 5-1, in the SEC Tournament Championship game at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium.

All week the Rebels (40-18) showed up and showed out with a fun and exciting style of play, and it all culminated Saturday night on Rocky Top when the Rebels hoisted the trophy. As the week progressed through the first round, all the way to the championship, Ole Miss won over the hearts of not only fans in Tennessee, but across the country.

This team of destiny made history time and time again, knocking off Mississippi State in the opening round, taking down No. 1 Florida in the quarterfinals, a game no one gave the Rebels a chance to win, before going on to beat No. 15 Alabama Saturday morning for the third time this year, then a few hours later complete the four-game sweep over the Tigers.

The Rebels were already the lowest seed to ever make the title game, and become the lowest seed to ever win it. Through it all, Ole Miss claimed its 40th win Saturday night, just one shy of last season’s school record, and not only put themselves in the discussion to host an NCAA Regional, but made a strong case to do so.

In Saturday’s finale, the Rebels used the same approach they had all week, putting pressure on the defense and relying on the arm of the SEC Tournament MVP, Kaitlin Lee. Ole Miss tacked on 12 hits against three different LSU (41-18) pitchers, and the slappers in the lineup yet again applied the pressure they needed, totaling seven of the 12 hits to spark the offense.

Lee, who threw every single pitch for the Rebels in four games, closed out her dominating week with one of the most impressive tournament performances in recent history. She worked her fourth complete game of the week, and allowed only one earned run off just five hits. The JUCO transfer, in her first Division I season, capped off the week with just three runs allowed, 19 hits, 12 strikeouts, only one walk, and one shutout in 28 innings.

Her offense helped her out vs. the Tigers scattering six hits against the starter Sydney Smith, before she was pulled in the second after earning three runs. Carley Hoover came in to pitch five frames and allowed two runs, one earned, while Allie Walljasper closed it out for the final two thirds of an inning.

The Rebels threatened early in the first putting two runners on, but Smith got out of the jam to keep the Rebels off the board. LSU came back in its home half with a leadoff single and steal, but Lee and her defense retired the side to keep it a 0-0 game.

But, in the second, Ole Miss turned it up with six hits and four runs. Courtney Syrett got the 1-out rally started off a hard single back up the middle, before Paige McKinney reached on an infield single to short. Senior Dakota Matiko – who was supposed to graduate this morning along with fellow seniors Syrett, Raven Campos and Strother – stepped in and reached out for a single through the left side to load the bases. LSU then turned to Hoover, before Cox dropped a single in front of a diving left fielder, scoring Bry Castro and McKinney. Becker then stepped in and ripped a 2-RBI single to center, scoring both Matiko and Cox, extending the lead to 4-0. From there, Newton County alumna Ashton Lamptonjust missed a 2-run home run by inches, before Dylinn Stancil roped a line drive, but it was right at the third baseman to end the frame.

Past that, Lee and her defense worked inning-by-inning to escape a couple jams, including in the fourth after back-to-back singles to begin the frame, before a sac bunt and infield grounder scored one to cut it to 4-1. But, Lee got a popup on the infield to end that inning keeping the score 4-1.

The Rebels went on to add an insurance run in the seventh when Stancil reached on an error to score Becker, extending the lead and final score to 5-1.

Cox, Becker, Lampton and McKinney all tallied two hits for the Rebels, while Cox and Becker had the two RBI from the top of the order.

OLE MISS 4, ALABAMA 1

Ole Miss jumped on the Tide (42-16) early, and rode the arm of junior RHP Kaitlin Lee to its improbable third victory of the tournament. Lee, who’s thrown all the innings thus far, gave up just one earned run and scattered seven hits earning her 19th win of the year.

Offensively, the Rebels applied pressure throughout as the four slappers tallied a combined five hits. Senior Miranda Strother and junior Paige McKinney tallied four hits from the bottom two spots in the order, and Strother and fellow senior Dakota Matiko had one RBI each.

The big inning came in the second when the Rebels plated three and held the lead from there. Kaylee Horton got it started with an infield single, before a hit-and-run moved her to second off the bat of Courtney Syrett. McKinney then singled to center, and made a heads up play to slide into second safely on the throw in. That’s when Strother came up and came through with an RBI single into left, scoring Horton, to put Ole Miss in front 1-0. She then broke for second, got caught in a rundown, and McKinney slid in safely, extending the lead to 2-0.

After Elantra Cox grounded out to move Strother to third, Kylan Becker battled down 0-2 and came back to draw a walk, and then forced another defensive mistake when she broke for second, the throw came home, then back to second, before it was dropped resulting in another run scored and 3-0 lead.

From there, the Rebel defense shined behind Lee, including a big double play in the third when she handled a line drive back to her, and fired to Matiko at first for the double play. McKinney followed that nice play with an incredible pick on what would have been an infield hit, sitting down the Tide in the third.

Alabama again put a runner on in the fourth after a hit by pitch, before Cox ran down a foul ball near the Tide dugout, and a fly to center ended the frame.

Ole Miss tacked on an insurance run in the fifth when Matiko had the biggest at-bat of her senior season, cranking a solo blast to left-center field, extending the then lead to 4-0.

The Tide put another leadoff runner aboard in the fifth with a single to left, before McKinney handled a popup on the infield, then Newton County alumna Ashton Lampton laid out to her right to snag a hard line drive saving a would-be extra-base hit. Lee then took a grounder back to the circle and fired to first ending the fifth.

Alabama scored its lone run in the sixth when the first two hitters reached on singles, before Bailey Hemphill lined one to right-center making it a 4-1 game. Cox then tracked down a fly ball in foul ground, before McKinney cut down the lead runner at third and snagged a popup to close the sixth with just one run allowed.

The Tide went on to put two runners aboard in the seventh when after Lee issued her first walk of the tournament, and Chandler Dare singled through the left side. But, a fly to left capped the game and secured the semifinal victory for the Rebels.