Every week during the college softball season, we’ll Roundup the best performances and performers, the top highlights, and noteworthy happenings of all kinds across the college softball landscape.
Want to send us some information to be considered for the Roundup or make sure we see a certain player or team’s performance? Email justin@extrainningsoftball.com.
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Exactly how everybody thought the PAC-12 season would start… right?
So let’s just check out the PAC-12 standings after two weeks of conference play…
UCLA is 6-0, no shock there. Arizona State is also 6-0, maybe a little surprise there. Cal is 3-3, big improvement there. Now let’s scroll to the bottom of the standings…
1-5 Washington
0-6 Arizona
Oh.
There are plenty of issues to be solved in both Tucson and Seattle. The Huskies were swept at home by UCLA – the Bruins are the best team in the PAC-12 at this point, but losing three games is losing three games, no matter who’s in the other dugout. It was a bad weekend for Washington, who also squandered a lead in Sunday’s finale.
And Arizona. Oh, Arizona. The Wildcats have a lot to straighten out. This was always going to be a rebuilding year, but even in a rebuilding situation, things are not going as expected for the Cats.
Cal is the biggest surprise in league play, and the Bears continued their quality start to league play with a win over Oregon in a hard-fought series in Eugene. Through two weeks, the Bears are easily the most improved team in the PAC.
The War on I-4
Entering the weekend, no pitcher in the nation had been better than Georgina Corrick. Corrick, the South Florida 5th-year ace, has truly been one of the best *players* in the nation through the first six weeks of the season. UCF and USF squared off in Tampa to begin American Athletic Conference play for both teams and it was UCF that put on a show.
The Knights outscored the Bulls 15-4 in the series, tagging Corrick with two losses and putting eight earned runs on the Bulls’ ace. Corrick had given up just three earned runs in the entire season prior to this weekend.
UCF’s offense clicked in Tampa, including standout performances from Justene Molina and Kennedy Searcy – Searcy took Corrick deep twice, while Jada Cody and Shannon Doherty also added home runs in the series. The American conference title now officially runs through Orlando.
It’s official: Miranda Elish is back to her old self
When Miranda Elish returned to college softball this year, she was always going to need some time to readjust. Nothing wrong with that; she’d been gone for a year. And while she had some struggles as part of that readjustment in the early portions of the season, she had her best weekend yet since beginning her comeback and her sole season as a Cowgirl
In a Big 12-opening series against Texas Tech, Elish’s bat did the talking. She made one appearance in the pitching circle, throwing five innings of 3-hit, 1-run ball and striking out five with a win. Offensively, she was on another level. Elish was perfect at the plate, recording an 8-8 performance on the weekend and clubbing a quartet of home runs along the way. She knocked in 9 runs and finished the weekend with a 3-game slugging percentage of 2.625.
Down in the SEC
Tennessee’s series win over Florida – including a pair of dominant performances that included the return of Ashley Rogers to the circle – was a major feather in the Lady Vols’ cap. Erin Edmoundson looks better than ever in the circle and Rogers was her usual effective self in the circle. The Lady Vol offense got the job done in the first two games of the series, and even a Florida comeback to avoid the sweep on Sunday afternoon couldn’t dampen the value of Tennessee’s series win.
Alabama had some struggles in game one of their series against South Carolina, ultimately relying on a pinch-hit grand slam to squeak out of an upset. The Crimson Tide had no trouble the rest of the way in recording the series sweep.
Kentucky took a hard-fought series against Auburn, including a Renee Abernathy home run in the bottom of the 7th on Sunday that clinched both the game and the series for the Wildcats.
Texas A&M and Georgia traded punches in Athens, with Georgia winning a pair of close games to clinch the series before Texas A&M employed an offensive onslaught on Sunday, a 16-8 run-rule win of their own that staved off a series sweep. Thanks to their offensive efforts on Sunday, the Aggies actually outscored UGA 27-16 in the series.
Ole Miss swept past Missouri at home, tripling the Tigers’ scoring on the weekend and winning three straight over the visiting squad.
UNCG’s offensive explosion
In a three-game conference series against Mercer, to say UNCG murdered the ball would be an understatement. The Spartans scored 46 runs on 41 hits and hit eighteen home runs (in fifteen innings, mind you). The offense knocked five longballs in a single *inning* in Sunday’s finale and hit eight in total in the game that registered the series sweep.
Maycin Brown batted a perfect 1.000 at the plate, going 8-8 with three home runs and three doubles to her credit, as well as eight RBIs. Grace Loftin and Jordan Gontram both recorded four home runs each on the week, with Loftin driving in ten runs and Gontram registering eight RBIs.
The Spartans outscored their league foes 46-9 in the series.
Northwestern, Nebraska highlight B1G opening weekend
Northwestern recorded three straight wins over Michigan State and Nebraska swept a doubleheader over Michigan, and the Wildcats and Huskers were the biggest winners on opening week of Big Ten play.
Northwestern bolstered their winning streak to twelve straight games, outscoring Michigan State 20-7 in three games, including a run-rule victory in the series finale. Danielle Williams threw 14 innings on the weekend, allowing just three hits and one unearned run. She struck out 28 batters, including a 17-strikeout performance to open the series.
Nebraska swept a doubleheader against Michigan before the third game of the series was cancelled due to weather, giving the Huskers a spotless opening to conference play. The Huskers won game one before staging a 7-run comeback in the second game to record the doubleheader and series sweep.
Oklahoma squeaks through
After run-ruling Baylor through the first two games of their Big 12-opening series, top-ranked Oklahoma had a scare in Sunday’s series finale. Baylor was the first team in nearly two years to hold the Sooners scoreless through six innings, and the Bears held a narrow 1-0 lead entering the seventh inning. Dariana Orme threw a gem of a game, but a two-on, two-out situation in the bottom of the 7th inning pulled the game in OU’s favor. Tiare Jennings hit a 3-run home run that walked off the Sooners’ 29th-consecutive win this season.
