Oklahoma, Florida, and Oregon, the nation’s top three teams, each lost this weekend. The Sooners took a loss to Boston University, while the Gators lost in the series finale against Louisiana-Lafayette and the Ducks from Eugene suffered a walk-off loss to Ole Miss in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Elsewhere around the country, Washington stretched their streak of consecutive shutouts to eight in a row. Florida State; Michigan; Minnesota; and Notre Dame traded wins and losses in Tallahassee; and UCLA, LSU, Texas A&M, and Arizona all posted unbeaten weekends. Let’s get to the headlines and highlights from the weekend…
NEWS:
- Mercer’s Meghan Rud set the Bears’ all-time record for stolen bases.
- Pittsburgh’s Giorgiana Zeremenko set the program’s career home run record with the 35th of her career.
- Bucknell’s Meghan Kovac set the Bison career RBI record with the 108th run batted in of her playing career.
- Charlotte head coach Aimee Devos earned the 600th win of her career in her team’s victory over Dayton on Saturday.
- Ole Miss outfielder Elantra Cox tied the Rebels’ career hits record.
- Wichita State head coach Kristi Bredbenner earned the 500th win of her career.
- UC-Riverside pitcher Tayler Misfeldt set the Highlanders’ career record for wins, with the 41st of her career.
- South Alabama pitcher Devin Brown set the Jaguars’ program record for strikeouts, with 736 punch-outs in her career.
- DePaul head coach Eugene Lenti earned the 1,300th victory of his career in a win over Presbyterian on Saturday.
- Utah head coach Amy Hogue recorded the 500th win of her career, which also happened to be the 300th victory during her tenure as the Utes head coach.
- Texas State senior pitcher Randi Rupp set the program’s all-time record for strikeouts, with the 1,024th of her career.
- Congratulations to the pitchers who recorded no-hitters and perfect games this weekend:
- Kelsey Aikey, Western Kentucky (vs. Sacred Heart, 8.0 IP, 7 SO)
- Kiley Majette, Winthrop (vs. Samford, 7.0 IP, 6 SO)
- Morgan Blourne/Sydney Matzko, North Florida (vs. Canisius, 7.0 IP, 6 SO)
- Autumn Humes, Kentucky (vs. North Dakota State, 7.0 IP, 3 SO)
- Cori Jennings, Middle Tennessee State (vs. UT-Martin, 7.0 IP, 5 SO)
- Makayla Martin, Auburn (vs. Maryland, 5.0 IP, 5 SO)
- Emily Richardson, Valparaiso (vs. North Carolina Central, 7.0 IP, 11 SO)
- Kiana Pancino, Stanford (vs. Army, 5.0 IP, 3 SO)
- Alexa Romero, Syracuse (vs. Sacramento State, 5.0 IP, 9 SO, PERFECT GAME)
- Kiandra Mitchum, Elon (vs. Mount St. Mary’s, 6.0 IP, 5 SO, PERFECT GAME)
WHO’S HOT
1. Loyola Marymount
After a shutout loss to Cal to kick off the Mary Nutter Classic, the Lions rebounded with a victory over defending Big Sky champion Weber State. LMU held a 5-0 lead over Arkansas at one point before the Razorbacks came back for the victory, but the Lions were able to finish the job in a 4-1 victory over Utah on Monday. After a one-win opening weekend, the Lions’ forecast is looking significantly better.
2. Bowling Green
The Falcons are off to a program-best start, the only time a BG softball team has started a season with a 9-1 record. Sarah Willis’ team has gotten contributions on offense from several different standouts, including Kali Holcomb, who boasts a team-leading sixteen RBIs on the year; Sammy Dees, whose .486 batting average is a Falcon-best; and Sarah Gonzalez, a freshman hitting .429 with a .786 slugging percentage. The Falcon pitching staff boasts an ERA of 1.45 and opponents have hit just .176 against the group.
WHO’S NOT
1. Tulsa
The Golden Hurricane had the opportunity to rebound from a poor opening weekend, but failed to take advantage of the opportunity, going 1-4 this week with two losses to Texas A&M and a pair of defeats at the hands of Iowa. The lone victory came against Butler and required a late-innings comeback. Tulsa fell to 3-6 after this weekend and do not have an easy road ahead of them, including a tournament next week that includes matchups against Illinois-Chicago, Texas State, and Florida Atlantic.
2. Missouri
Questions began to seriously swirl around the Tigers after Ehren Earleywine’s dismissal as head coach just weeks before the season, and the Tigers’ on-field product has done little to quiet the naysayers. The Tigers are 6-5 on the season and went a deceiving 4-2 this weekend. In addition to losses to Oklahoma State and Marshall, the Tigers had to post a six-run inning in a comeback victory over UMass-Lowell and bested South Florida in extra innings. As they now head to the Mary Nutter Classic in Cathedral City this coming week, the Tigers will play six games, including two against ranked Pac-12 opponents.
WORTH WATCHING
An incredible, fence-crushing catch by Courtney Krodinger of Northern Iowa:
What fence? Courtney Krodinger goes 🆙 and over for this grab! pic.twitter.com/QwraFBCRa6
— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) February 15, 2018
PERFORMANCES OF THE WEEK
1. Sydney Lahners, Pacific – The Tigers senior was perfect at the plate for the first three games of the weekend, going 8-8 with three home runs. She tacked on a fourth longball later in the weekend and elevated her weekend RBI count to eleven. All told, the younger sister of former Washington all-American Kylee Lahners hit an incredible .769 on the weekend.
2. Megan Kleist, Oregon – The Ducks ace, the numero uno of a terrific pitching staff, took the hard-luck loss to Ole Miss in extra innings that capped off an otherwise-excellent tournament for the righty. In two complete games in Puerto Vallarta, Kleist threw 15.1 innings and allowed just four hits. The sole run scored against her came via the international tiebreaker; prior to that rule in extra innings, only two baserunners had reached second base against her while in Mexico. She struck out twenty-six hitters in the two games.
3. Tori Vidales, Texas A&M – For the Aggie slugger, it was an impressive weekend statistically, but one that was much of the same of what we’ve come to expect on a regular basis from the senior first baseman. Vidales hit .533 on the weekend, with four home runs. Among the quartet of roundtrippers were two grand slams, hit against Butler and Tulsa. She drove in twelve runs on the week and scored five times.
