5 Things You May Have Missed in College Softball Saturday
Gophers Win B1G Title
The Minnesota Gophers defeated Penn State 14-1 in five innings on Saturday. Saturday’s win crowned Minnesota as the Big Ten regular season champions. The last time the Gophers won a Big Ten regular season title was in 1991. The victory also gives the Gophers their first ever 50-Win season. They are 50-3 overall and are the first team in the NCAA to hit 50 wins in 2017. “To see it pay off for a group of your women who worked hard, put the team first and believed in themselves all season and to watch them celebrate on the field was pretty special,” head coach Jessica Allister said. The Gophers take on Penn State for one more tomorrow in their final regular season game of the season. First pitch is set for 12 p.m.
OU Pitchers Combine for No-Hitter
Oklahoma finished the regular season with a sweep of Oklahoma State after a 1-0 victory on Saturday. Freshman Nicole Mendes accounted for the only run with a solo homer in the sixth inning and combined with junior Paige Lowary on a no-hitter in the circle. The no-hitter was the 49th in program history, and second of the season for OU, but just the third ever that was a combined effort. Saturday was also just the second no-hitter ever thrown against Oklahoma State by OU. It was previously done by Keilani Ricketts on May 12, 2013, in Stillwater. The game was scoreless through five innings until Mendes hit a one-out home run to left center. It was her third of the year and extended her hitting streak to 12 games (a career best) and her on-base streak to 26 contests, the longest by a Sooner this year.
Gators Win on Senior Day
The Florida Gators earned an 8-0 win over North Texas on Saturday, the Gators Senior Day. All three Gator (48-5) seniors received starts and Delaney Gourley picked up her 17th win of the season in the circle after she threw 4.2 innings of shutout softball against the Mean Green (24-29). Gourley also picked up her 61st career victory with the win. Gator Head Coach Tim Walton had this to say about his senior class, “It’s not only their on the field success and the five championships that they’ve won since they’ve been here, but just the way they compete. All three always have smiles on their faces and all three of them do it the right way in the classroom. They’re all good kids, they have fun and they work hard, but I think the easiest thing I can see is they have a truly infectious positive personality.”
Vols Even Series
The Tennessee softball team evened the series against Texas A&M on Saturday after earning the 8-4 victory at the Aggie softball complex. Haley Bearden ignited the Tennessee offense with a pair of hits and a career-high three RBI’s. She was one of eight Vols to record a hit and one of five to drive in a run on the afternoon. Vol pitcher Matty Moss was solid in the circle, she threw 6.2 innings and struck out eight batters to improve to 22-2 on the year. The rubber match of the series will take place on Sunday, first pitch taking place at 1 p.m. ET.
Ole Miss Tops Missouri
Ole Miss run-ruled Missouri 12-4 on Saturday afternoon in game two to clinch the series over the Tigers. The Rebels (36-17, 10-13 SEC) pounded out 10 hits and took advantage of seven errors by Missouri (28-25, 6-16 SEC), as every player in the starting lineup reached base at least once. Three players had multi-hit performances and two were responsible for home runs as Ole Miss scored its most runs in SEC play this season. In the circle, it was sophomore Brittany Finney who again was efficient allowing only two earned runs off five hits, earning the win to remain perfect at 6-0 on the season. Mizzou sent out three pitchers for the second-straight day, and they surrendered seven runs in front of a struggling defense that committed at least one error in four of the six frames. Ole Miss will go for the series sweep against Missouri on Sunday with the game time starting at noon.
Extra Innings: Oregon Hammers Florida State
Oregon softball team made an emphatic statement in its bid to host the first two rounds of the postseason, sweeping a doubleheader with Florida State on Saturday night, by scores of 11-0 and 3-1 before a sold-out crowd of 2,517 at Jane Sanders Stadium. “Obviously we’re trying to stay on the momentum we’ve been building the last few weeks,” UO coach Mike White said. “I think we’re starting to turn the corner, finally feeling good about ourselves, so it’s important to keep that going tomorrow.”
