NU Media Relations
Las Cruces, N.M. – The ninth-ranked Nebraska softball team rallied from a one-run deficit with two outs in the top of the seventh inning to post a 4-3 victory over No. 12 Florida State in an odd game Friday at the Hotel Encanto Invitational.
The Huskers, frustrated by missed scoring chances throughout the game, had one final chance to rally after a Florida State solo home run gave the Seminoles a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Trailing in their final at bat, a pair of FSU errors helped Nebraska defeat a ranked opponent on the season’s opening day for the first time since 2007.
The first batter of the top of the seventh was retired, before junior Kylee Muir delivered a single to give the Huskers hope. Classmate Mattie Fowler then reached on an error to put runners at first and second with one out. Freshman MJ Knighten moved both runners into scoring position with a ground out before sophomore Dawna Tyson was called on to pinch hit. Tyson fell behind in the count 1-2 but battled and hit a fly ball to shallow left field that popped out of Kelly Hensley’s glove. Muir came home with the tying run and freshman pinch runner Kat Woolman, making her Nebraska debut, scored from second with what proved to be the winning run.
Senior right-hander Tatum Edwards (1-0) then worked around a leadoff error in the bottom of the seventh to retire the next three hitters and preserve the victory. Edwards fired a five-hitter and walked only one in a complete-game effort. She won the battle of 2014 All-Americans, as Florida State’s Lacey Waldrop (0-1) suffered the loss in the Seminoles’ season opener. Waldrop allowed four runs (two earned) while scattering 11 hits and going the distance.
The rally was needed as Nebraska struggled to make use of its base runners. The Huskers had more than twice as many hits (10) as the Seminoles (5) and Florida State committed five errors defensively to NU’s two and issued one more walk than NU. But Nebraska was unable to do much with the extra base runners, stranding 11 runners compared to just four for Florida State. NU left the bases loaded in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
The Huskers were shut out of their bases-loaded opportunities in the fourth and fifth innings, but scored twice in the top of the third to take a 2-1 lead. Freshman Austen Urness led off with a double and sophomore Kiki Stokes followed with an infield single. With runners on first and third and none out, Tatum Edwards lined a ball right to the third baseman, who couldn’t hold on to the ball but collected and threw to second to force out Stokes. Senior Taylor Edwards then delivered an RBI single through the left side on a 3-2 pitch that scored Urness with the tying run.
A single from sophomore Hailey Decker loaded the bases with one out before Florida State picked up the second out. Fowler then hit a spinning ground ball that spun away from the first baseman for an RBI infield single that scored Tatum Edwards. Taylor Edwards also tried to score on the play, but was thrown out at the plate.
Florida State, which jumped out to a 1-0 lead three batters into the bottom of the first inning, pulled even with a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the fourth and took a 3-2 lead on a leadoff home run from Maddie O’Brien in the bottom of the sixth.
The Huskers answered O’Brien’s home run with a pair of two-out runs in the top of the seventh. Nebraska won in its final at bat for the first time in 2014, after producing the winning run in its final at bat 13 times in 2013.
After defeating UTEP and Florida State on Friday, Nebraska returns to action on Saturday at the Hotel Encanto Invitational, facing host New Mexico State at 5 p.m. (Central).
