Still the nation’s premier early-season tournament, the Mary Nutter Classic brought more than its fair share of great softball to the table over the weekend. Even a bit of rain couldn’t stop the bats from connecting and the yellow balls from flying throughout the weekend in Cathedral City. But as the tournament went on in California, some great softball was happening in other parts of the country. Let’s take a virtual road trip and check out some of the weekend’s highlights outside of the Palm Springs metropolis.
Beginning in Fayetteville, Arkansas, there was no shortage of headlines and award-worthy performances at the Razorback Invitational at Bogle Park. Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel celebrated her 100th victory as the Hogs’ head coach, while the visiting Southeast Missouri Redhawks helped head coach Mark Redburn to his own 100th victory with that program. SEMO and the Drake Bulldogs both pulled off upsets over the Razorbacks (who were ranked 12th in the latest edition of the Extra Inning/JWOS Power Rankings), but it was Hogs sophomore Danielle Gibson who stole the show with a headline-grabbing performance on Saturday night.
Gibson, the former Arizona State transfer who has impressed early in her first year with in Fayetteville, hit a 2-run home run in the first inning against SIU-Edwardsville, then followed that up with a 3-run home run in the second inning; a grand slam in the third; and a solo shot in the fourth, completing the so-called “Home Run Cycle” for just the second time in Division I history. In a performance that was featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter and earned a write-up on MLB.com, it should be noted that Gibson’s feat has never been accomplished in Major League Baseball and she is the first softball player to complete the feat in just four innings.
Next, our trip takes us to Waco, Texas, where the field for a four-team tournament included the hosting Baylor Bears and the 10th-ranked (EI/JWOS) Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns, as well as the North Texas Mean Green and the Kent State Golden Flashes. The tournament field alone promised good softball, and did it ever deliver. In true round-robin format, every team got a shot at the other, and it didn’t take long for havoc to strike.
After an offensive onslaught against Kent State, Louisiana-Lafayette and head coach Gerry Glasco got the best of Baylor in a 5-2 win on Friday night. The Cajuns were higher ranked and an offensively-powerful team, so the result was not unexpected. That was the last time that phrase could be used, however. When Saturday came about, Kent State – behind the arm of stellar redshirt freshman Andrea Scali – beat the Bears not once, but twice to earn a spot in the tournament championship game. Not to be outshined in the upset alert category, North Texas handled the Ragin’ Cajuns with a 5-1 final score to end ULL’s season-opening winning streak. The Mean Green would win the tournament championship in a Sunday victory over Kent State, while Baylor took the win in the consolation game over Louisiana-Lafayette with a 4-3 final score.
Let’s hit the road again with quick stops in a couple of Bayou State cities. First, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where the Austin Peay Governors and McNeese State Cowgirls went head-to-head in a non-conference three-game series. The Govs proved that 2018 was no fluke, as first-year head coach Kassie Stanfill led her squad to a series sweep, outscoring the Cowgirls 10-4. The series included a 16-inning square-off in game one of a doubleheader on Saturday that saw no scoring from the 6th inning to the 16th, when the Govs scratched across a single run to earn the 2-1 victory.
Before we leave the Bayou, let’s check in with the Stanford Cardinal in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the PAC-12 team traveled east for the LSU Invitational. Head coach Jessica Allister entered the weekend with a perfect record at LSU’s Tiger Park, and she leaves with that record still intact after her squad posted a 5-0 record on the weekend that included a 7-5 win over the hosting LSU Tigers, as well as a 7-1 win over perennial Big Ten contender Michigan.
We’ll stay near the Gulf of Mexico as we continue our recapping trek, next looking in at Mobile, Alabama to heap some praise on the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks after the team’s second win of the season over a team ranked in the top 25 in a national poll. After earning a win over Mississippi State in opening week, the Ladyjacks bested Illinois on Saturday and after the weekend, now sit at 11-5 on the year.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama is the next stop on our trip, where Minnesota and Alabama went head-to-head and a familiar thing happened:
Katie Rietkovich@KRietkovich
Let’s leave the scene of such controversy to check in on the Battle of the Unbeatens in Macon, Georgia. The Big Ten’s Indiana Hoosiers and the Missouri Valley’s Loyola-Chicago Ramblers squared off in the south with their respective unblemished records on the line. It would be the Hoosiers who proved victorious, ending the Ramblers’ own spotless record to begin the year. The Hoosiers would escape the Peach State with their pursuit of perfection intact, but not without a considerable amount of effort, thanks to an 11-inning tight one against Mercer.
Indiana pitcher Tara Trainer continued to impress in the pitching circle for the Hoosiers, finishing the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record and a 0.28 ERA on the weekend. She also collected thirty-seven strikeouts in twenty-five innings of work.
Our trip has been long, but we’re not quite done yet – let’s look at some teams taking the field in the Sunshine State this weekend. Defending National Champions Florida State remained perfect on the season, posting a 6-0 record in their hosted tournament that included five run-rule victories for the Seminoles.
Further south, in Tampa, Florida, the South Florida Bulls put on a tournament of their own, one that included in the field the Virginia Tech Hokies, who entered the weekend as another of the nation’s unbeaten teams. That streak came to a screeching halt with a 17-5 loss to Texas State in five innings, a game that saw the Bobcats post fourteen runs in a single inning and end the 30+ inning-long scoreless streak from Hokies pitcher Keely Rochard. The Hokies took another loss, this time to South Florida, before rebounding against Texas State on Saturday to record a run-rule victory of their own.
Before we close out our recap, a pair of mid-major upsets must be acknowledged, including Prairie View A&M’s 5-2 victory over Wichita State in Arlington and Stetson’s 3-2 win against Louisiana Tech to split a doubleheader with the Lady Techsters.
