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. UVA gone streakin’
Virginia started off ACC play with a bang on Friday, sweeping a doubleheader with Notre Dame at home in Charlottesville. The Hoos came back from a 5-2 deficit in the first game of the series, scoring five runs in the bottom of the seventh, including a 3-run walk-off home run by Abby Weaver. In the second game of the day, UVA again rode the power of big innings, but got started earlier, scoring four runs in the second inning and two in the fifth, Weaver got the scoring started this time, with an RBI single in the second.
Virginia got to Notre Dame’s Payton Tidd, notching eight hits and six runs off of the Fighting Irish hurler.
2. You HAFF to be perfect
Arkansas had never seen a seven-inning perfect game thrown in the program’s history; Mary Haff had never thrown a perfect game in college. Both of those facts changed after the Hogs took on Maryland on Friday. Haff threw a perfect game against the Terps, collecting four strikeouts and backed by six runs from her offense to finish off the record-setting outing.
Haff’s fourteen strikeouts are the most of any Hogs pitcher this season in a single game and recorded six consecutive Ks at one point during the game, before punctuating the noteworthy victory with one final strikeout to close the game.
3. Faraimo on Fire
Megan Faraimo was perfect on Friday… again. That statement alone illustrates the hot streak that Faraimo has been on of late. She struck out every batter she faced in a five-inning outing against Cal State Bakersfield, recording 15 Ks on the day and finishing off her second solo perfect game of the season and the third such affair that she’s contributed to. Faraimo’s solo effort came just one night after taking part in a two-pitcher combined perfecto on Thursday.
Faraimo has been on fire in the month of March, reaching double-digits in strikeouts in each of her complete-game outings this month and totaling 48 Ks in 21 innings of work across five games, recording three wins and one save.
4. A walk-off, a bat flip, an Auburn win
A back-and-forth affair on the Plains saw Auburn nearly down to their last out in the seventh, but the Tigers surged back and created havoc at the right time before emerging victorious with a walk-off home run in extra innings. After Auburn scored in the bottom of the first inning, Texas A&M responded with three runs in the second inning. An Auburn fielding error in the third inning gave the Aggies the lead, and Auburn was forced to come clawing back, which they did on a fielding error and run in the bottom of the seventh. In the eighth, Maddie Penta came on in relief and loaded the bases before inducing a flyout that ended the threat.
In the bottom of the eighth, leading off for the Tigers, Denver Bryant cranked a 2-0 pitch over the center field wall to vault Auburn to the 5-4 victory. For Bryant, the #8 hitter in the Auburn batting order, it was her first hit of the day and fourth home run of the season.
5. Alo hits #96
After earning sixteen walks in her last eight games, Alo has gotten pitches to hit in Hawaii and, on Friday night, she hit the record-breaker. Alo has stood at 95 career home runs for a few weeks now, but she broke through with career home run #96 on Friday, officially setting a new all-time record in NCAA softball history. The longball also came in front of a true home crowd for the Sooner great, a Hawaii native, who had dozens of family members in the crowd for her record-breaking moment.
9️⃣6️⃣. 𝐉𝐎𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐍 𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐇𝐀 𝐏𝐔𝐌𝐄𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐀𝐋𝐎 👑🤙 pic.twitter.com/sI22YeoCjv
— Oklahoma Softball (@OU_Softball) March 12, 2022
