10 Things You May Have Missed in College Softball This Weekend
The 2017 NCAA College Softball season is in full swing. This past weekend was full of team sweeps and stand-out performances all across the country. Here are ten things that stood out to us at Fastpitch News.
The University of Minnesota Gophers have won 19 straight games for the second time this season after a pair of run-rule victories over the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday afternoon. The Gophers are now 48-3 on the season and 19-1 in the Big Ten. They are a perfect 16-0 in front of their home crowd and are one win away from tying the program record for most wins in a season. Senior pitcher Sara Groenewegen shined in the circle this past weekend, tossing a no-hitter on Friday night, and pitched 5.1 innings on Saturday, 4.1 of those were hitless, and for the 12th time this season, tallied double-digit strikeouts. She is now 25-2 on the season with a 0.55 ERA and has 237 total strikeouts. Next weekend the Gophers head to Penn State to close out the regular season. They are one victory away from clinching a share of the Big Ten regular season title and two wins away from winning it outright. The Gophers have not won a B1G regular season title since 1991.
Auburn senior Kasey Cooper became the SEC’s all-time leader in career RBI while pacing the Auburn softball team to a 6-3 win over Mississippi State on Sunday’s Senior Day at Jane B. Moore Field. The Tigers (43-8, 15-6 SEC) also broke the single-season program record after turning their 43rd double play of 2017. Cooper, who now has 266 RBI in her four years on The Plains, passed Charlotte Morgan of Alabama for the conference crown. “[Kasey’s] an All-American in my book,” said head coach Clint Myers. “She’s got a chance to be a Rhodes Scholar. She’s graduating with honors and distinction. She’s a phenomenal athlete and she’s a phenomenal student. There are so many accolades you could say about her. I’m proud of her.” With the weekend sweep, Auburn clinched its sixth consecutive series win against Mississippi State, dating back to 2011. The Tigers return the diamond next weekend when they make the trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala. for a three-game series against Alabama, May 5-7. All three games are set to be televised nationally on ESPN2 and the SEC Network.
Florida State (47-3-1, 24-0 ACC) closed out a perfect regular season in conference play with a 6-2 victory on Sunday afternoon over North Carolina. The Seminoles move to 47-3-1 and 24-0 in ACC play and Sunday’s victory marked the first time since 2003 that any school finished ACC play with an undefeated record. The Seminoles have finished the conference season undefeated four other times, and are one of just three schools from a Power-5 conference to ever record a perfect season in conference play, joining Nebraska’s 16-0 as a member of the Big 12 in 1998 and Iowa who posted a 22-0 mark in the Big Ten in 1997. “Going undefeated in conference is such a huge feat, and it isn’t just based on skill,” said FSU head coach Lonni Alameda. “It takes a lot of character and a lot of leadership, and that has been this senior class. They’ve just been so consistent with everything they do on and off the field. So it doesn’t matter if you are down or if you are up, you are going to get ‘Seminole Softball’ for seven innings. It is just so fun to see and they have worked for that.” The Seminoles will play their final home game of the regular season on May 3, welcoming Florida (46-4) to JoAnne Graf Field for the Fresh From Florida Sunshine Showdown.
The Kentucky softball team got three runs in the first and three in the sixth, which helped propel them to a 7-4 win over Texas A&M and clinches a top-five series win for the first time since 2015. The last UK series win against a top-five opponent occurred in March of 2015 when UK took two of three from the No. 1 LSU Tigers at John Cropp Stadium. With Sunday’s win, Kentucky improves to 34-14 overall and is now a season-high 20 games above the .500 mark. The Wildcats have won two Southeastern Conference series in a row now, and sit tied for seventh with LSU at 11-10 in league play. With the loss, Texas A&M falls to 41-7 overall and is now 15-5 in the SEC this season. Kentucky will conclude the regular season next weekend in Starkville, Mississippi with a three-game series against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
BYU completed their sweep over San Diego on Sunday in an 11-0 run-rule victory. With the win, BYU (36-10, 9-0 West Coast Conference) pushes its win streak to 15 games and remains the only undefeated team in conference play. San Diego fell to 20-21 (6-6 WCC) on the year. This is the first time the Cougars have swept a WCC series with three run-rule wins. Additionally, BYU has four run-rule wins in a row for the first time since 2008. Libby Sugg went 2 for 2, scoring three RBI and two runs. Thompson went 3 for 3, scoring two runs and one RBI. Senior pitcher McKenna Bull pitched in all five innings of the mercy-rule game, increasing her BYU record 36.2-straight scoreless innings pitched. She had seven strikeouts in the game and helped the Cougars to their 15th shutout of the season. The Cougars remain at home for their next game, facing Grand Canyon Wednesday, May 3, at 5 p.m. MDT in a nonconference matchup.
South Carolina took the series against Georgia with a 6-2 victory on Sunday at Turner Softball Stadium. South Carolina claimed the lead for good with a two-out rally in the fifth capped by junior Krystan White’s two-RBI single, set up by a double from senior Victoria Williams and a walk to junior Alyssa VanDerveer. South Carolina extended that advantage to 6-2 in the sixth on a bases-loaded walk by Williams and a bases-loaded grounder by freshman Mackenzie Boesel. Gamecock senior Jessica Elliott (14-9) pitched four shutout innings in relief, scattering two hits and two walks to pick up the win. The victory on Sunday secured South Carolina’s first series win at Georgia since the Gamecocks swept a doubleheader in Athens on March 28, 2001. Up next, South Carolina hosts LSU in the final regular season weekend.
The Fresno State softball team came from behind in the seventh inning to complete the Bulldogs’ sweep of UNLV with a 4-3 victory on Sunday afternoon at Eller Media Stadium in Las Vegas. The ‘Dogs went into the final frame down 3-1 and used a combination of two doubles, a single and a walk to come out ahead. Sophomore pitcher Kamalani Dung (20-12, 2.25 ERA), who started all three games of a MW series for the first time in her career, was the first Fresno State pitcher to start and win all three games of a MW series since Jill Compton did so April 24-26, 2015, against Nevada. Over the weekend, Dung threw all 23 innings for the Bulldogs, going 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA and allowing only four extra-base hits and three walks. Fresno State returns home for the Bulldogs’ final home MW series as they host New Mexico next weekend.
Tennessee defeated Florida 5-1 on Sunday in front of a record-setting home crowd of 2,239 at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium. Sunday’s victory was the first for the Volunteers over a top-ranked opponent since 2015 when they defeated LSU, 8-5. The win also snapped a six-game losing streak to the Gators (46-4, 20-3 SEC). Tennessee’s four runs off the grand slam hit by Megan Geer in the bottom of the fifth inning were the first runs given up by the Gators in 47 consecutive innings during conference play. The Big Orange’s five total runs scored on the afternoon is tied for the second most runs given up by UF in a game this season. The Vols close out the regular season next weekend with a trip to Texas A&M.
The Oregon softball team completed a three-game sweep of Oregon State with a 7-0 victory before a sellout crowd of 2,517 in Jane Sanders Stadium. The Ducks (41-6, 14-6 Pac-12) have won 15 straight games against rival Oregon State, sweeping five straight series. With the sweep, they kept themselves firmly in the hunt for a top-eight postseason seed, and the right to host the first two weeks of the NCAA Tournament. Ducks pitcher Megan Kleist pitched a one-hit shutout in Sunday’s victory and Shannon Rhodes went 2-3 at the plate and drove in five runs. The Ducks return to action this weekend with a nonconference series against Florida State.
Arizona bounced back on Sunday and defeated Arizona State 8-0 to win the series over their rivals for the second straight year. Danielle O’Toole threw a one-hit shutout on her senior day and Jessie Harper went 3-for-3 with two homers and five RBI. Arizona hit four home runs in an 11-batter stretch between the third and fourth innings, breaking open what was a 0-0 game heading into the third. Mo Mercado and Harper hit back-to-back solo homers in the third before Harper hit a grand slam in the fourth and Alyssa Palomino followed with a solo homer of her own. The offensive explosion ended what had been a frustrating series for the Wildcats. Arizona, which entered the weekend second in the nation in scoring at nearly eight runs per game, had been held to six total runs in the first two games. The Wildcats (47-5, 17-4 Pac-12) will head to UCLA next week with their first conference championship since 2007 on the line.
