SALT LAKE CITY – Mariah Lopez threw her second consecutive complete game, allowing only one run, and the No. 12 University of Utah softball team clinched a spot at NCAA Super Regionals for the first time since 2017 by downing the Ole Miss Rebels, 4-1, on Sunday afternoon on day three of NCAA Regionals at the Dumke Family Softball Stadium.

The Utes have now won 40 games for the first time since 2006 and the seventh time in program history and they will host the NCAA Super Regional series that will begin on Thursday or Friday. This will be the first time Utah has ever hosted a super regional and its the squad's third trip to that stage overall in program history. 
 
"I'm really proud of this team," said head coach Amy Hogue. "Accomplishing something we've not done, we've never had the opportunity to host supers. I'd love anybody to come here and play this team right now because we're playing great and we just earned a couple more days of ball."
 
For the second straight day, the Utes used a second-inning rally to grab the game's first lead. This one started with a Julia Jimenez single and Karlie Davison followed by tattooing a two-run homer over the fence in left-center for a 2-0 lead. Utah added one more before the frame ended, courtesy of an Abby Dayton single, a sacrifice and an RBI base knock off the bat of Kendall Lundberg.
 
Two innings later, the home team increased its lead to four thanks to a run-scoring Aliya Belarde single that was a proceeded by a Shelbi Ortiz double. The Rebels found an answer in the fifth however, when Aynslie Furbush was hit by a pitch and motored across on a Jalia Lassiter double.
 
That represented the only offense Ole Miss could manage against Lopez, who worked around six hits by the Rebels and stranded six runners, including two in the fifth after Lassiter's two-bagger. Ole Miss waited out two walks to bring Paige Smith to the plate as the tying run, but Lopez got Smith to groundout to end that opportunity. The junior from Arizona allowed only a two-out single in the sixth and another in the seventh before inducing a ground ball to second from Smith that Belarde turned into the final out.

LIGHT THE U 🙌

No. 15 @Utah_Softball downs Ole Miss to host its first Super Regional in program history. Highlights ⤵️#Pac12SB | #RoadToWCWS pic.twitter.com/wi2cL8L4JC

— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) May 21, 2023