College: St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational Saturday Recap

At the end of Saturday, Florida State’s Seminole team stood alone as the only unbeaten team in Clearwater after the third day of action concluded at the 2019 St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational.

The crowds at the event were tremendous with the weekend games completely sold out. The good news is that ESPN and the City of Clearwater have a three-year contract, according to city representatives, so the softball community will have another Elite event to welcome back as it’s quickly becoming one of the highlights of the college softball pre-season.

People came from all over the nation to support their teams and college softball in general. With six fields hosting games and The Package Deal onsite with clinics, the venue was at capacity. Thankfully, the teams provided great games and Florida supplied perfect weather.

Here are some highlights from Saturday’s action…

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Florida State looks so far like it hasn’t missed a beat after it’s National Championship season of 2018 and the Noles seemed to have no trouble with LSU, another Top 10-ranked team this week, jumping out to an early 3-0 lead and never looking back on the way to a six-inning 9-1 run rule.

Meghan King started in the circle, with Kara Bilodeau entering in the 5th, and King coming back in to close out the game. FSU racked up 11 hits during the game with Shelbi Sunseri and Shelby Wickersham each facing 11 Seminole batters. Ali Kilponen faced six batters, and allowed four of the Seminole’s hits.

Florida State wraps up the weekend in its homestate playing Tennessee, ranked #5 in the most recent Extra Inning Softball/JWOS Power Rankings.

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The Wildcats of Kentucky took on the Longhorns of Texas in a tight game yesterday that kept fans enthralled until the end.

Former Oregon hurler Miranda Elish, who followed head coach Mike White when he migrated south to the Lone Star State, started and gave up three runs on five hits in six innings of work.

She was also responsible for two of the four runs on the Longhorns scoreboard thanks to a two-RBI double. Grace Baalman held strong in the Kentucky circle, holding the lead for five innings. Mallory Peyton homered in the top of the seventh to knot the game at three.

The Longhorns looked to Brooke Bolinger who took over the circle and kept the Wildcats scoreless. Then Kaitlyn Washington stepped up to the plate and delivered a walk-off single, bringing a 4-3 win to the books for White over a ranked SEC opponent.

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The Golden Bears came from behind to force extra innings in the evening game against the Irish of Notre Dame. The Irish have had an up-and-down event in the Sunshine State, blanking Oklahoma State and then being shutout themselves by Tennessee and suffering a loss to Minnesota, who also held the Irish scoreless.

Cal jumped to an early 2-0 lead, which was tied up in short order by Alexis Bazos’ RBI double. Freshman Quinn Biggio’s first career home run brought the Irish lead to 5-2 and Katie Marino’s RBI single in the fifth left the Golden Bears behind four runs.

Not to be denied, the Golden Bears rallied and knotted the score in with a four-run rally in the 7th. In the bottom of that inning, the Bears forced two errors off of the Irish pitcher which turned into runs.

Sabrina Nunez led off and reached on a throwing error, advancing to second on a single from Lindsay Rood, which was her third hit of the game. Nunez was plated thanks to a fielder’s choice throw that went wild, putting two more runners in scoring position for Cal.

Lauren Espalin brought the tying run in with an RBI single to left. The Bears held the Irish in the 8th and Bradley plated Nunez to get the win. The teams combined for 19 hits and five errors.

SATURDAY RESULTS

• Oklahoma 2, Florida Atlantic 0
• LSU 7 Ohio State 2
• Texas 4, Kentucky 3
• Oklahoma 17, Hofstra 3
• James Madison 6, Florida Atlantic 1
• Ohio State 10, Utah 2
• Florida State 9 LSU 1
• Oklahoma State 4 Cal 1
• Minnesota 10, Notre Dame 0
• Oklahoma State 13, Hofstra 2
• Kentucky 12, Oregon 3
• James Madison 6, Tennessee 2
• Cal 7, Notre Dame 6
• Florida State 17, Minnesota 6