You saw the headline-makers this week (and if you didn’t, click here); Oregon State sweeping through the Civil War. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State with matching sweeps to set up a conference-championship-deciding Bedlam matchup next week. Kentucky taking a series win over Alabama in front of the Crimson Tide’s Tuscaloosa faithful.
Here are our picks for the top performances you might have missed from Week 12 of the regular season.
Virginia Tech Hokies
In Pete D’Amour’s first season as a head coach, then at Kennesaw State, he took that team to the tournament finals of the NISC postseason tournament. This weekend, in his first year at Virginia Tech, his team locked up the ACC regular season championship in a conference that also includes the defending national champions. The Hokies have already passed the 40-win plateau, ending the weekend at 43-8, and boast a team batting average of .342. On the pitching front, the Hokies’ success can also be heartily attributed to the emergence of a pair of aces in the circle; Carrie Eberle was a known commodity, but has still been dominant at times, while Keely Rochard has truly emerged as a sophomore and complimented Eberle well. The Hokies are going to be dangerous in the postseason.
Portland State Vikings
After a pair of hard-fought losses to Oregon in midweek play – twice holding a lead over the Ducks before letting their PAC-12 opponents come back – the Vikings came out firing on all cylinders against Sacramento State in a weekend series, sweeping a series-opening doubleheader to take the series win over the Hornets. A 3-1 series-opening win saw the Vikings score three unanswered runs against Sacramento State ace Savanna Corr, while a 7-2 win in game two was sheer offensive dominance by the Vikings. Sophomore Serafine Parrish pitched well in the series, appearing in two games and recording 9.2 innings pitched, allowing seven hits and two runs, striking out four.
Loyola Marymount Lions
The Lions swept a pair of tight games to open the conference series against Saint Mary’s, taking a 4-1 win in the series opener behind a 2-3, 3 RBI performance from Delanie Wisz. Game two of the series was a 15-inning affair that saw no scoring until the ninth inning, when the teams each scored a single run, before an RBI single in the bottom of the 15th inning finished the game on a walk-off. LMU pitchers Samantha Manti and Hannah Bandimere combined for fifteen innings in the circle, allowing just five hits and no earned runs while striking out eleven. The series finale saw the Lions score eight runs in the first two innings, while Bandimere and Linnay Wilson combined for a 4-hit shutout to earn the run-rule victory for their team.
Emily Sorem, Lehigh
The Mountain Hawks’ senior pitcher, Sorem threw a career-best performance in game two of her team’s series against Holy Cross, holding the Crusaders hitless through a 9-inning affair and outlasting Holy Cross freshman ace in a pitcher’s duel that resulted in a 2-0 Lehigh win. It was Sorem’s fifteenth appearance of the season, only her sixth of three innings or more, and went in the books as the senior’s first career collegiate no-hitter. The no-no was the 14th in the Lehigh history books, and the first to stretch through a nine-inning game.
Ole Miss Rebels
The Rebels’ stellar 2019 season continued with a series win over Tennessee in a battle of teams vying for a top-4 berth in the conference tournament. The Rebels now sit in third place in the SEC, with a .650 winning percentage in conference play after taking two out of three from the Lady Vols this weekend. The Rebels opened the series with a 5-3 win and earned the series win after a 4-1 victory in game two of the series. A 9th-inning fielding error gave Tennessee the winning run in the series finale, but the Rebels won their sixth conference series of the year and put themselves in solid position in conference in their final home series of the regular season.
Arizona State Sun Devils
Despite a dismal conference record that saw them win just one-third of their first fifteen PAC-12 games, the Sun Devils saw their bats come alive in an important series against Stanford, outscoring the Cardinal 27-13 and moving to 8-10 in conference play. The series opener saw a 3-4 performance by Denae Chatman, including two home runs and four RBI from the Sun Devil first baseman. In game two, it was senior Morgan Howe who led the Sun Devil offensive attack, going 3-5 with two RBI doubles and a solo home run. The squad hit eight home runs on the weekend, including two longballs each from Chatman and Howe.
Megan Garst, North Alabama
The UNA junior ace helped her team to a series win over Liberty, a decisive weekend result for the Lions that puts the squad a single win away from clinching a berth in the conference tournament in their first season at the Division I level. Garst started the weekend with a 3-hit shutout of the Flames, buoying her team to a series-opening win, before posting her first no-hitter at the Division I level in the series finale. It was the second no-hitter of Garst’s career, following a no-no against West Georgia in 2018 when UNA competed at the Division II level. Garst ended the weekend with a 2-0 record with one save, twenty-one strikeouts, and just three hits allowed. She boasts a streak of 22 consecutive scoreless innings, dating back to the series opener vs. Kennesaw State on April 19th.
Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters
After suffering through much adversity following a Thursday tornado that decimated their home field in Ruston, the Lady Techsters headed just down the road to Monroe, using the home field of the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks to host a crucial 3-game set against Western Kentucky, a battle of the top two teams in Conference USA. The Lady Techsters played with much emotion on Saturday, recording a pair of wins in the doubleheader before sweeping the series with a 7-1 win on Sunday.
Quick Hits:
>>> UMass dropped the first game of a top-level conference series against Fordham, losing by a 6-3 final score, but rebounded in the second half of a doubleheader and in the series finale, posting back-to-back wins to win the series. The Minutewomen came out on the winning side of an offensive battle with an 11-6 final score, before a 4-1 win in game three of the series.
>>> UT-Arlington recorded a series sweep over Appalachian State, outscoring the Mountaineers 21-10. The Mavericks outlasted the Mountaineers in a 9-inning game in the series finale to record the sweep, scoring four runs in the 9th inning to earn the 9-7 final score.
>>> Drake took a series win over a tough, underrated Missouri State team, bookending the series with dominant, 9-run performances. The Bulldogs outscored their opponents 20-9, despite earning just their second conference loss of the season in game two of the series.
>>> Southern Illinois earned a decisive series sweep over Northern Iowa, with a pair of extra-inning victories to close out the series. The Salukis outscored UNI 17-8, posting a 12-inning win in game two of the series and an 8-inning victory in the series finale.
>>> Cal State Fullerton put five unearned runs on UC-Davis ace Brooke Yanez to earn a run-rule win in the series opener between the two Big West teams. After losing a 9-inning one-run matchup in game two of the series, the Titans rebounded with a 5-1 victory in the series finale to win the series.
>>> Ohio State swept past conference foe Illinois, outscoring the Fighting Illini 23-6 and posting a run-rule, 9-0 victory in the series opener. The Buckeyes’ winning streak now sits at eight straight games, including a 7-game conference winning streak
