Courtesy of Arizona Athletics
TUCSON, Ariz. – Arizona used three late-inning home runs for a 4-2 comeback victory over St. John’s in both teams’ opening NCAA Softball Championships regional play here at UA’s home Rita Hillenbrand Stadium Friday night;
UA (39-17) stays in the winner’s bracket while St. John’s (28-18) faces an elimination game Saturday. Michelle Floyd (19-12) took the victory over SJ’s Tori Free (11-7) in what had been a scoreless game through three innings.
The Red Storm threatened in the first, with three hits off Floyd. Leadoff hitter Hannah Anderson singled, but was thrown out trying to steal. An out later, Krystal Page singled and Erin Burner doubled her to third. Floyd got a ground ball from Brittany Garcia to end the inning.
Arizona got a pair of baserunners in its half after a one-out single by Chelsea Suitos and a walk to Kelly Fox, but SJ’s Free got Katiyana Mauga to ground into a 6-3 double play.
UA had two runners in scoring position with one out in the second after a Lauren Young walk and a double by Hallie Wilson, but Free got a pair of line drives to quell the rally.
SJ scored in the fourth with one hit. Garcia reached on an error by UA shortstop Fox, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Yvonne Rericha, and scored on a single by Savannah Warren, who moved to second when left fielder Suitos added another error. Floyd got out the jam with a ground ball.
The Wildcats had a chance to knot the score in their half of the frame. Mauga drew a walk, but pinch runner Aireal Sakasegawa was thrown out trying to advance on a pitch in the dirt. Chelsea Goodacre and Mandie Perez drew two more walks. Mo Mercado reached on a fielder’s choice and with runners at the corners Free struck out Lauren Young.
Mercado turned a nifty double play off a liner in the fifth to erase another Red Storm baserunner in scoring position.
Wilson tied the game with a home run to left-center in the Cats’ fifth. It was her 12th of the year and only the seventh off Free in 113 innings pitched to that point. But, an inning later, Goodacre took the first pitch and hit it over the videoboard 40 beyond the right field fence for her 23rd homer and a 2-1 Arizona lead. After a walk and a sacrifice, Lauren Young slugged her sixth home run of the year to make it 4-1.
St. John’s came right back with a single by Rericha and a double by Warren to open the vistor’s half of the seventh. An error by second baseman Mercado let in a run. A fielder’s choice cut one runner at the plate on a throw by Fox and after another ground out, Monique Landini drew a walk to load the bases. Floyd struck out Krystal Puga to end the game.
Arizona will play Minnesota in winner’s bracket action at 12:30 p.m. Saturday while St. John’s faces New Mexico State in the first elimination game of the regional at 3 p.m. A third game Saturday will eliminate a second squad in the four-team regional.
St. John’s Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Amy Kvilhaug
Opening Statement
“Like I told the girls at the end of the game, I’m really proud of the way we competed today. My assistant coach said it best when he said that we proved that we belong here and I felt like that was the case. I thought our kids battled from start to the finish, to the bitter end and we played really good defense. You really can’t ask for much more than that. I mean it was a great softball game. It was interesting because this morning we had our cage time for 40 minutes and Mike and I were just discussing kinds of the bats and just how crazy the offensive onslaught has been this year with run production and such. We were just talking about changes that needed to be made and that it would be nice to kind of go back to old school softball. I think we kind of got what we wished for with an old school, well played – at least on our end, I’m not sure how he feels about his team, but I thought it was a well-played softball game.”
What she thought of the fight in her team
“I think the fight is something that I think I’m accustomed to because it’s something that we do all the time. It was awesome to see that nothing has changed. I thought it was pretty darn good that we held a team that’s hitting 98 home runs scoreless for five innings or whatever it was. I mean I can’t ask for much more than that.”
What St. John’s has to do to get ready for the games tomorrow
“Eat, get a good night sleep and then come back, warm up and just do the same thing. We just need to prepare the same game that we’ve been preaching all season long. We just need to be consistent and stay even keel and get ready to face New Mexico State.”
Game 1: New Mexico State vs. Minnesota
TUCSON, Ariz. – No. 15 Minnesota opened NCAA Softball Championships play in the Regional here at Rita Hillenbrand Stadium with a 10-2 victory over New Mexico State Friday afternoon.
Sara Groenewegen (29-5), tossed a three-hitter and struck out 10 to earn the victory for Minnesota. Dallas McBride took the loss for the Aggies (46-15) and dropped to 18-6.
NMSU jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first when Staci Rodriguez clouted her 16th home run of the season with one out and Rachel Rodriguez aboard after drawing a walk.
The Gophers (47-9) answered to post a 4-2 lead with a run-scoring double by by Hannah Granger and a two-run single from Taylor LeMay. The fourth run scored on an Aggies error.
Minnesota scored three in the second on RBI singles from Danielle Parlich and Kaitlyn Richardson, and a run when Erica Meyer was hit by a pitch from NMSU starter Dallas McBride with the bases loaded. It might have been a bigger rally but NMSU centerfielder Rodriguez threw out Sara Groenewegen at home for a double play.
Parlich doubled in another run in the third and Minnesota threatened with a bigger rally, but after a run-scoring infield single by Granger, Parlich was picked off third base for the third out. Minnesota led 9-2, picking up the pair off NMSU reliever Karysta Donisthorpe..
The Gophers picked up the run-rule victory with a hit batter, a walk, a single and a one-out bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Erica Meyer in the bottom of the sixth..
Minnesota meets the winner of the game to follow, St. John’s against host Arizona. The winner’s bracket game is at 12:30 p.m. (MST/PDT) Saturday. NMSU will play in an elimination game against the loser of the SJ-UA contest at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Minnesota Post-Game Quotes:
Head Coach Jessica Allister
“I’m really proud of our team coming out and getting a win in the first round. We showed some good resiliency by getting down early and coming back and putting together some great at bats. New Mexico State is a very good ball club, and I’m proud of the way that we played today.”
On key to success
“We were going to need to pitch effectively. We needed to keep their hitters off balance because they have great power and a lot of good hitters, and we needed to swing at strikes.”
On preparing for next game
“What we always do. We are going to work on attacking their hitters. We have to play good defense and swing at strikes.”
3B Sam Macken
Key behind the plate
“Just staying calm in the box and swinging at strikes. She was an out pitcher so we knew we needed to swing at strikes and not chase ourselves out of at-bats.”
NMSU Post-Game Quotes:
Head Coach Kathy Rodolph
“I tip my hat to Minnesota, they came out very strong and I felt like we got a little bit flustered and they hit the ball well and they hit it hard so we weren’t quite sure whether to play in or play back. And then we started getting some dink hits. It was great to start it off with Staci coming up and getting us on the board first but I felt like we probably needed to do a better job of mixing in the circle to keep their hitters off.”
On what Minnesota did so well
“Well you know they’re a very talented team, and an All-American pitcher, pitcher of the year in the Big Ten. She’s very talented. And she definitely kept us guessing and kept us at bay but I also felt like her hitters backed her and they were hunting pitches in certain areas, and stayed to the game plan; well coached.”
On what they need to do better tomorrow
“Most importantly last weekend at the WAC Tournament we kind of found ourselves in the exact identical situation where we had to fight back the next day and I’m hoping that we will get determined tonight. We’re going to go take a look at Arizona and St. Johns and see who we’ll end up playing tomorrow. But I just told the kids that honestly stay together. In times like this it’s very easy to look for somebody to blame of why things went wrong and instead we need to figure out the strengths of our team and stay together.”
The importance of regrouping after a loss like this
“I think it’s very important but we have a phenomenal group of seniors that you know we’ve been fortunate enough to have with us all four years. And you know they’re great individuals as well as talented softball players. So I know that they’ll carry the message back to the team while we’re here scouting that we’re okay. Sometimes a ball bounces left and sometimes it bounces right. And sometimes it goes in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t. So hopefully we can swing the momentum back our way tomorrow and we believe that we have the ability to play a little bit better than what we showed today. But with that said, Minnesota did a great job.”
CF Staci Rodriguez
On what the pitcher did to settle down
“She mixed her speeds really well. She had a very good change up that we couldn’t fix so that kept us on our toes and her rise ball is very effective against us. We just had to stay in our zone and play off of it.”
On what she saw on the 2-run homerun in the first inning
“I knew that she was going to come with a change-up because that’s her out-pitch so I just waited for it and then there it was.”
