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The Terrific Ten has you covered on all the best highlights from all the action across college softball on Friday!
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1. The Day the Pitching Fell
In Columbia, in Tampa, in Ann Arbor… some of the game’s best pitchers were beaten on Friday, even those whose teams came back and pulled off a win at the 11th hour.
UCF solved Georgina Corrick in the opening game of the War on I-4 in Tampa, tacking Corrick with twice as many earned runs as she had given up all season to this point. In a doubleheader face-off, Nebraska took it to both of Michigan’s pitching aces, beating both Alex Storako and Meghan Beaubien in a doubleheader sweep. Montana Fouts continued her recent trend of so-so performances against South Carolina, with the Gamecocks scoring five runs and holding a late lead before a pinch-hit grand slam bailed out the Crimson Tide. Some of the game’s best in the circle did not have good days on Friday.
2. Shades of Jaz Lunceford
Lunceford’s 2009 pinch-hit grand slam in the Women’s College World Series is a thing of softball legend, and Bama’s KJ Haney did her best impression on Friday night. With the Tide down 5-2 against a hosting South Carolina team, it was Haney’s pinch-hit bomb that gave the Tide the lead for the first time in the game, a lead they would not relinquish. Haney hit the longball on just the second pitch she saw; it was her first home run of the year and quadrupled her previous RBI total on the year.
3. What’s in the water for the Golden Bears?
Last weekend, Cal takes two games in a three-game series against Washington. Then they drop a midweek game to Sacramento State. Then they travel to Oregon and, in their first matchup against the season-long surging Ducks… run-rule Oregon on their own home field. The Golden Bears scored eleven runs on Oregon’s pitching staff and Cal held the powerful Ducks offense to just two runs in the game. Cal had not beaten Oregon since the 2019 season, but they pulled off the win in impressive fashion on Friday. The Bears pulled off the win thanks to a pair of huge innings, scoring five runs in the fifth and six runs in the sixth to reach run-rule territory. They also outhit the Ducks and handed the loss to the Ducks’ de facto ace Jordan Dail.
4. One win takes the series
Early Saturday morning, Notre Dame and Duke announced that the remainder of their ACC series is cancelled due to temperatures and expected inclement weather. The cancellation of games two and three of the series gives the Irish the series win after their victory in game one on Friday. The game was not without its own difficulties, including a two-hour delay in the early-goings, but the Irish racked up the offense when they returned to the field. Duke mustered just one run on one hit in the affair, while Notre Dame piled on some runs in the eventual 8-1 victory.
5. Kayt Houston, have a day
Only once in Appalachian State program history had a single player hit three home runs in the same game. On Friday, outfielder Kayt Houston added her name as the second-ever on that list. Houston hit a two-run home run in the first inning against Louisiana-Monroe in Friday’s matchup, then added two more longballs in the fourth and sixth innings, respectively. She entered the game with three home runs this season, only to end the game with double that amount to her credit. Not only did Houston account for most of her team’s offense in the 6-3 win, but she also threw a runner out at third base from right field, making an impact on both sides of the ball.