Daily Dozen: Friday, April 8
Top Stories1. Darby Trull turns the tables in Tallahassee. Not many people know how it felt to be Florida State’s Sydney Sherill on Wednesday night, when the slugger’s extra-inning home run on the road propelled her team to a memorable victory against a rival. Not many people. But Virginia Tech’s Trull is now one of them. Trull’s ninth-inning home run rescued the fourth-raked Hokies an inning after they appeared to throw away the series opener against the third-ranked Seminoles.
An inning earlier, former Seminoles pitcher Caylan Arnold, in the broadcast both as an analyst, summed up one of the season’s most remarkable moments: “What just happened?” A softball nation shared the sentiment. With Virginia Tech leading 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Michaela Edenfield hit an apparent game-ending groundout to third base. But when the throw sailed high, Edenfield kept running. And when the recovery throw missed its mark, Edenfield kept running, She didn’t stop until she slid home with the tying run. Trull then potentially saved the game by chasing down a Devyn Flaherty shot that bounced off the top of the fence in center before Flaherty had time to complete a more conventional inside-the-park four-base romp. That ended the eighth and set the stage for Trull’s two-run home run and a 6-3 victory.
And we didn’t even get to the Hokies’ Meredith Slaw hitting two home runs or Keely Rochard striking out 14 and allowing just five hits on 159 pitches. It’s going to be a fun series.
2. Ole Miss wins series opener again. For the second straight week, Ole Miss beat a highly-ranked team in an SEC series opener. The Rebels rallied from a 4-1 deficit on the road to beat No. 11 Kentucky 7-6 and prolong their program-best start. Last week, Ole Miss (29-9) beat No. 10 Arkansas in the opening game before dropping the final two. The Rebels scored three runs in the fifth and three runs in the sixth to deliver Kentucky a loss. The Wildcats finished with as many errors (5) as hits (5). They mounted a late charge by scoring two in the bottom of the seventh, but Kayla Kowalik grounded out to end the game. Sydney Gutierrez finished 3 for 4 with a double and three RBIs for Ole Miss, which stranded 10 runners on base.
3. Home run hit and home run robbed. There was only one home run recorded in Georgia’s 8-2 series-opening victory over Tennessee and a ball never left the park. Ellie Armisted’s hit down the right field line in the second inning glanced off the glove of UT’s Rylie White and Armisted turned on the jets to race home for a 2-0 lead. UT rallied to tie, but the Dawgs started to break it open by batting around in the fourth inning. UT senior pitcher Ashley Rogers was pulled with the bases loaded and two outs and UGA leading 3-2. Erin Edmoundson entered the circle, and the Dawgs scored two more runs on a walk and a hit-by-pitch. UGA center fielder Jayda Kearney was a human highlight reel in the sixth inning, skying to rob a likely home run at the wall and then driving in two runs in the bottom half for more insurance.
4. Jocelyn Alo does something she hasn’t done before. No, really. As you might have heard, Alo has hit a few home runs in her time. She’s hit multiple home runs in a game plenty of times. But even the all-time home run champion hadn’t hit three home runs in a game. Until Friday. Alo’s three home runs and four RBIs propelled No. 1 Oklahoma to its 28th run-rule win of the season, a 11-0 victory at Texas Tech. It also propelled Alo into the national lead with 19 home runs this season. And for all of that, she arguably isn’t even the Sooner on the hottest tear. Grace Lyons hit two home runs against the Red Raiders, giving her six in her past six games and a new single-season career best of 15 home runs.
5. Sun Devils go Duck hunting early. What rust? Even after taking last week off, the Arizona State bats didn’t cool off. Alynah Torres fought off multiple pitches from Makenna Kliethermes before lifting the eighth pitch of the at-bat out to left for a leadoff homer. Jazmyn Rollin started the next inning with her first of two blasts on the night. The Sun Devils add three more runs in both the second and fourth to race out to a 8-0 lead. Oregon finally got to the freshman Mac Morgan in the fifth with a pair of home runs to avoid a run-rule loss, but that’s the only offense the Ducks produced. Any momentum was killed in the sixth when Rollin launched this moonshot for her team-leading 12th home run of the season for the Sun Devils, who won 9-3.
6. Wisz puts a little extra on it for the Bruins. Stanford nearly stole a win from UCLA on Friday night. Megan Faraimo worked with a 1-0 lead for most of the night, holding the Cardinal scoreless for six innings. She had retired 11 straight and only allowed one hit leading into the seventh, but Stanford didn’t go down without a fight. Sydney Steele started with a double and advanced a Emily Schultz single. Steele eventually scored on a sacrifice fly, but Faraimo left Schultz stranded by striking out Alana Vawter, who she battled all night. Vawter quickly retired the first two Bruins in the eight, only to make her biggest mistake of the night to Delanie Wisz. The UCLA catcher blasted a ball to center for a solo shot to put the Bruins up by one. They’d add another to extend the lead to the game’s final of 3-1. UCLA now has won 25 in a row and are now 10-0 in Pac-12 play.
7. Lewis and Rudd strike again. As did the rest of the Northwestern offense. The Wildcats tallied 10 hits and a whopping five home runs in a 12-3 route of No. 21 Ohio State on the road. Rachel Lewis and Jordyn Rudd hit back-to-back shots for the second weekend in a row. Lewis went 3-for-3 with two home runs and 3 RBIs for the Wildcats. The graduate outfielder now has 14 homers on the season and 56 in her career, taking sole possession of second place ahead of Adrienne Monka and Garland Cooper. Skyler Shellmyer joined the power club, slapping a home run to right – the first of her career.
8. Arkansas and Auburn play home run derby. All 11 runs of the series-opening game came via the home run, and it could have been 12. Auburn’s Lindsey Garcia hit what should have been a two-run home run in the second inning, but lead runner Paige Geraghty missed touching home plate so only one run scored. Jessie Blaine helped ease the pain a bit in the very next inning by blasting a three-run home run to tie the game 4-4. But the Hogs did what the Hogs tend to do and hit a few more bombs to increase their lead to 7-4, which ended up being the final score. Linnie Malkin continued her hot streak with two more home runs for Arkansas after hitting a grand slam in a midweek win. Auburn starter Shelby Lowe gave up all seven earned runs on eight hits in 4.0 innings pitched.
9. Melena Livingston leads No. 22 Michigan against a very familiar opponent. With reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Lexie Blair out indefinitely with a leg injury, Michigan needs a coalition capable of replacing her run production this weekend against Penn State. A graduate transfer from those same Nittany Lions, Livingston proved up to the task Friday with a three-run “walk-off” home run in Michigan’s 8-0 run-rule victory. The second baseman has actually been a godsend for the Wolverines ever since Blair went down. Livingston also hit a home run in a midweek win against Michigan State and is 5-for-8 with eight RBIs in the past three games. She had just 10 hits and four RBIs prior to that stretch.
10. The MBs lead SDSU over UNLV in the series opener. If you’ve been paying close attention to No. 25 San Diego State’s win streak, you’ll know it has a lot to do with the duo of Maggie Balint and Mac Barbara, who have led the Aztecs both in the circle and at the plate. That didn’t change Friday in an important Mountain West matchup. Balint kept her time in it, going pitch for pitch with UNLV’s Jenny Bressler. Both teams struggled to bring in runners in scoring position, well, except Barbara. She knocked in both San Diego State runs with a pair of singles. The two runs were all Balint needed as she completed the shutout in the seventh, striking out 10 for her 13th win of the season.
11. The top two teams in the WCC split Friday’s doubleheader. BYU and LMU were the top two teams in the WCC preseason poll and the two highest teams in the conference in terms of RPI. Both teams opening up conference play against one another meant a lot in terms of who will be playing further into May. The Cougars took the opener 4-0 behind an Autumn Moffat-Korth shutout. Violet Zavodnik and Marissa Chavez homered to provide the offense. In the second game, all the runs came for LMU. A five-run third inning powered an early 7-0 lead and the Lions never looked back in their 8-4 win. Jasmine Sofowora went 3-for-3 and scored three times from the eight spot in the lineup. With no conference tournament, Saturday’s rubber match becomes essential for a postseason spot.
12. Iowa and Baylor finally get conference wins. Entering Friday, Baylor, Iowa and Iowa State were the only Power 5 teams without a conference win. Iowa State had only played three conference games, and Baylor had only played Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. As for Iowa? Well, it has been a rough stretch for the Hawkeyes. And it looked about ready to get rougher after Minnesota scored eight runs in the top of the second inning of Friday’s series opener. But the Hawkeyes scored seven unanswered runs, capped by Kalena Burns’ second home run of the game to secure a 9-8 victory. Burns began the day with one home run in 32 games. Baylor found its own style points, scoring nine of its runs in the final two innings of a 10-3 victory at Kansas.
Bonus: Florida State looked a bit different Friday. And not just because they looked like the Robin Ventura-era Chicago White Sox in black and gray. The Seminoles wore special “Players Weekend” jerseys that allowed each player to choose the name that went on the back. Many chose an homage to their hometown or home state, including Sydney Sherrill (“Oklahoma”), Devyn Flaherty (“Sota” for Sarasota) and Michaela Edenfield (“Sneads” for her tiny Florida hometown). But our favorite remains first base coach Kaleigh Rafter, the Olympian who honored her home country with “Canada Eh?”