RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
Stanford’s winning streak ends
Let’s start with a notable, less-wacky happening; Stanford’s nation-leading 21-game winning streak came to an end in game two of their series against Oregon. The Cardinal had lost just once in 2023, in their second game of the season to Oklahoma, and had not lost since until they fell to the Ducks. One day after losing their winning streak, the Cardinal started a new one by taking the series finale from Oregon.
Oklahoma and Tennessee now hold the nation’s longest winning streaks, with both programs riding 19-game victory streaks following Sunday’s contests.
Walking to a win
Florida State’s 4th-inning stat line in their series-opener against Syracuse was almost mind-boggling.
10 runs. 2 hits. 1 error. 1 left on base.
The sequence of plays in that fourth inning: Error. Fly out. Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Single. Walk. HBP. Walk. Ground out. Single.
Two pinch runners, two pinch hitters, and two Syracuse pitching changes also added to the half-inning that saw fourteen batters step to the plate for FSU.
One inning was all that the Noles needed, coasting the rest of the way to a 10-0 final score.
Protest denied
Nevada and San Jose State’s series opener ended in controversy on Friday. After a two-RBI hit that gave SJSU a walk-off win, Nevada protested the game due what the Wolfpack said was an incorrect lineup card.
According to information provided by multiple sources, the lineup card at issue included two San Jose State players that share a last name and first initial, sisters Ahmiya and Adrianna Noriega.
Both sisters were in the SJSU lineup for the entire game, and it was Adrianna Noriega who recorded the walk-off hit.
Per sources, a directive on lineup card inspection was sent to umpires nationwide on Saturday morning. The directive included the notation that two players with the same last name and first initial must be differentiated on the lineup card and instructed umpires to look for and rectify such issues during the pregame plate meeting.
Also on Saturday, the Mountain West conference and the NCAA denied the protest and San Jose State officially registered the series-opening win.
So we meet… again?
The last time that Boston University and Fairfield met on the softball diamond, BU head coach Ashley Waters was a high school sophomore, still several years from beginning her eventual Hall of Fame career at the University of Maine.
The last time until Saturday, that is.
When the Terriers and Stags took the field for an impromptu doubleheader, scheduled just days earlier to make up for previously-scheduled other games being rained out, it marked the first time that the programs met in softball since the 2003 season.
Both teams had been scheduled to face each other just twice in the years since, in 2011 and again in 2012, but both of those contests were canceled due to weather.
Boston has fairly dominated the matchups between the two teams all-time, holding a 13-3 record against the Stags, and last lost in the series in 1998.
Saturday’s games, which took place at Fairfield and finished with 9-0 and 2-0 final scores in favor of Boston, continued the Terriers’ winning streak in the series.
Drop dead times strike again, no eyedrops necessary
The PAC-12 series between Cal and Oregon State and the Sun Belt series between Troy and Texas State both ended in a tie thank to pre-arranged “drop dead” times by which the game had to end, completed or incomplete.
In Troy, the Trojans and Bobcats were forced to end their affair after the regulation seven innings thanks to Texas State’s travel plans; the drop-dead time in place for the series finale said that no new inning could begin after 2:15 pm local time, so when the 7th inning was completed after that time, the clock decided the game’s result.
Troy had won the first two games in the series and officially ended the weekend 2-0-1, while Texas State was 0-2-1.
Playing the rubber match of their own conference series, Cal and Oregon State also reached a point of impasse in their finale game in Corvallis. Cal’s travel plans forced the game to completion after eight innings, a 5-5 tie that stood after a scoreless eighth.
Officially, both teams finished the weekend with a 1-1-1 showing in the series.
We know you really came here for the pupper content…
… so here it is. Easily the best first “pitch” of the weekend:
not that we're biased or anything, but this was the best first pitch we've ever seen.
Thanks to Mettler for coming out to Bark in the Park pres. by @toyota#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/zSqAdXWRqZ
— Oregon State Softball (@BeaverSoftball) March 19, 2023