The Terrific Ten has you covered on all the best highlights from all the action across college softball on Saturday!
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1. Makinzy Herzog returns to the circle in style
Texas A&M standout Makinzy Herzog had not pitched since March 4th; she hit, but didn’t see time in the circle. On Saturday, she finally made her grand re-entrance to the pitching rubber and oh boy, did she do it in style.
Herzog threw a complete game against Florida in game two of the Aggies-Gators series in College Station, shutting out the Gators and collecting fifteen strikeouts along the way – a new career high. She dominated the Gator offense, allowing just three hits and never allowing a Florida baserunner to reach third base. After giving up a leadoff walk and a stolen base to lead off the game, Herzog proceeded to collect six consecutive swinging strikeouts that really set the tone for the outing.
Florida looked utterly bewildered at the plate, and the Aggie ace enjoyed a career performance as her team pulled off their first SEC win of the year and have a chance at a series win on Sunday.
2. Clemson’s revenge on Duke
After taking a lopsided loss to open their series at Duke on Friday, Clemson returned the favor in convincing fashion on Saturday. The Tigers posted a 10-2 run-rule victory on Saturday, buoyed on the strength of an 8-run fourth inning that led to the run-rule-shortened win.
Eleven Clemson batters came to the plate in that fourth inning, with runs scoring on a pair of errors, two RBI singles, a Sam Russ RBI triple, and two plays that went into the books as fielder’s choices. A Marissa Guimbarda 2-RBI double in the fifth inning got the Tigers’ scoring into double-digits, while Clemson pitcher Millie Thompson held the Blue Devils to two runs on five hits while notching eight strikeouts in the win., her 5th victory of the year.
3. Is this what’s called a Texas winning streak?
Don’t look now, but Texas has won five games in a row, all of them against teams from the state of Louisiana in games that were initially seen as toss-ups. After sweeping a doubleheader from Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday, Texas returned home to host a 3-game series against LSU. The Longhorns took game one of the series on Friday, shutting out the Tigers, and a doubleheader between the two teams was to close out the series on Saturday.
Another shutout and a 4-0 win in Saturday’s opening game clinched the series win for Texas, who got a second-consecutive quality start from Hailey Dolcini in the circle. The third and final game of the weekend went into the books in much wilder and crazier fashion, as the Longhorns climbed back from a 7-0 deficit to post an 11-10 walk-off victory.
The comeback was cemented with a 5-run sixth inning that included RBI singles from Janae Jefferson and Mary Iakopo and an RBI double from Courtney Day, while McKenzie Parker proved the ultimate hero, hitting a walk-off, 2-RBI double that scored freshman sensation Mia Scott and Jefferson to put the game and the series sweep officially into the record books.
4. Georgia Capell, the queen of the Tarleton diamond
No Tarleton diamond sports player has ever hit more home runs in a Texans uniform than Georgia Capell. Already the Tarleton softball career home run queen, Capell took sole possession of first place in the athletic department’s entire history with her 59th career longball on Saturday. Headed into Saturday, Capell had been tied with the baseball all-time home run leader for the Texans’ all-time overall crown, but after launching home run #59 in a conference series against Abilene Christian, the record now belongs to Capell and Capell alone.
5. Danielle Gibson powers Arkansas to series win
After playing out-of-conference on a bye week while most of the SEC began league play, Arkansas began SEC play against Tennessee this weekend. On Saturday, it was super senior first-baseman Danielle Gibson whose power stroke at the plate guided the Hogs to the series win over the Lady Vols. In a single game, game two of the series in Knoxville, Gibson hit a pair of home runs, including a late grand slam that was crowned Saturday’s Best Moonshot on ESPN’s SportsCenter and recorded seven total RBIs in the 9-6 win. The Hogs had just five hits in the game, but two of them came off the bat of Gibson and went over the fence.
In case you missed Gibson’s grand slam, it’s worth seeing:
ABSOLUTELY 𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗗 IT 🤯🤯🤯#NCAASoftball x 🎥 @RazorbackSB pic.twitter.com/YWicOl2sAa
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) March 19, 2022
