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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Is this the wildest year that SEC softball has had?
With three weeks left in the conference season, the SEC race is as tight as it can be. Things seem like they’re coming down to Arkansas and Alabama in the title race and a back-and-forth jockeying in the spots below the two teams.
Alabama has a lower winning percentage in conference play than Arkansas does, but the Crimson Tide boast two more wins than the Hogs thanks to not having enjoyed their bye week yet. Arkansas has the highest winning percentage in league play, but the Tide maintain a half-game lead in the SEC standings as of now.
The Tide survived a pair of late deficits against Mississippi State, twice walking off the Bulldogs en route to a series sweep on their home field in Tuscaloosa. Arkansas recorded a series win over Kentucky, a series that had major implications for the top part of the league standings, and are still at the top of the heap.
Florida and LSU both recorded series sweeps, over Ole Miss and South Carolina, respectively, while Georgia took a series win over Missouri in CoMo. Florida is still in position for a first-round bye in the top four in the league as of now, while LSU moved up to 7th in the league with their trio of victories.
Texas A&M had a sizable lead over Tennessee on Sunday, the second day in a row that the Aggies had a late lead on the Lady Vols only to lose the game. Sunday’s result came on a walk-off grand slam by Kelcy Leach for the Lady Vols, as the Aggies snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and maintain their position in the 12th spot in the conference standings, despite playing well and scoring a solid number of runs in each game.
But is this also the worst year that PAC-12 softball has seen?
Right now, the PAC-12 is virtually assured two Regional hosting spots – that would be UCLA and Arizona State – but after that, the postseason picture gets far murkier for the league. Washington is trying to claw their way back into the hosting picture, notching a 3-game sweep of Oregon State this weekend, while also-close Oregon imploded in a series loss at Arizona.
To be frank, the PAC-12 scene is an intriguing one, but also a wild one. Some tough non-conference losses hurt the league across the board and the usually-dominant teams are simply not as dominant at this point.
After Sunday’s games, the PAC-12 has two teams – the afore-mentioned Bruins and Sun Devils – in the top 16 in RPI, while Washington and Oregon both check in just outside the top 16, but still within the top 20. This was the first weekend since conference play began where Washington has looked like the Huskies team we’re used to seeing on an annual basis, but it also came at the expense of Oregon State, whose unexpected surge this season was once a redeeming quality for the PAC-12’s offering.
Use Stanford as an example of what the PAC-12 softball scene looks like right now. Last weekend, the Cardinal looked like world-beaters, taking a series win over UCLA and winning some tight, one-run ball games over the Bruins. One week later, Stanford loses two out of three games against archrival Cal, who have also had a resurgence this season but are still building their program in a lot of ways. One team, two very different weekends – that’s about the way things have looked for the league as a whole this year. The PAC-12’s postseason opportunities are shaping up to be quite interesting.
Texas winning even one means something
Did Texas’ win over Oklahoma on Saturday wipe away the fact that the Sooners had already taken the series win or that the Longhorns had not won a game in this series since 2014? No, but what it *did* do was give Oklahoma their first loss of the season, end their winning streak that had crossed the 4o-game plateau, and give the Longhorns a statement win on their resume.
Hailey Dolcini out-dueled Jordy Bahl in the series finale and Dolcini finally got her just due after taking the hard-luck loss in Friday’s opener. Mike White had never beaten OU as the Texas head coach, but now he has. Moments like Saturday’s matchup were the very moments for which Texas picked up Dolcini out of the portal last fall – and she delivered when called on.
Rachel Lewis, history maker
Rachel Lewis has been a stalwart in the Northwestern lineup for her entire career as a Cat, and she made program history this weekend. Hitting a total of four home runs in a series over Purdue, Lewis set a new program record for home runs, breaking the previous mark of 57 longballs that had stood since 2009.
Lewis buoyed the Wildcats to a 3-game sweep over the Boilermakers, despite not earning an official at-bat in the series finale as Purdue chose to walk her three times intentionally in the final game. For the weekend, Lewis was 5-6 at the plate with four home runs and nine RBIs to her credit.
All of the strikeouts belong to Hannah James
Saturday was quite a day for Murray State pitcher Hannah James; already the program’s record holder for single-season strikeouts, she decided to one-up herself and set a new mark in that category with her 159th strikeout of the year. That was just the tip of the record-breaking iceberg, though. James also set a new Racers program record for career strikeouts, reaching 491 Ks during her time in Murray, and tied a single-game program record in the strikeout category with 14 on Saturday.
The Mountain West is SDSU’s to lose
San Diego State’s 9-0 start in conference play was no fluke; the Aztecs played some of the marginal teams in the Mountain West, but were up to the task even when their closest title competition came to town. The Aztecs are now 4-2 in consecutive series’ against UNLV and Boise State, asserting themselves as the team to beat in the Mountain West race.
Despite some early-season non-conference losses that have hampered their RPI rankings, SDSU has had a whale of a conference season and the series wins over UNLV and Boise dispatched the teams who have put together the best resumes in the league outside of the Aztecs themselves. Maggie Balint has been rock-solid in the circle for SDSU and the Aztecs are firmly in control of the MW ship at this point.
Addison Barnard’s dominance continues
Just stick with us here if you’ve heard this before, but Addison Barnard is a superstar. The Wichita State sophomore had another solid weekend at the plate, including hitting a pair of home runs in the Shockers’ series finale against Houston. The pair of longballs put Barnard at 20 in total this season, making her the first player in program history to record multiple 20-home run seasons during her career. She is also the first 20-20 player in program history, notching 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same single season.
She’s also batting .388, has 52 RBIs, and has earned 16 walks on the year.
