Daily Dozen: Saturday, February 26

1. No record, no problem for the homer-happy Sooners. We could do a dozen entries on just No. 1 Oklahoma’s 9-8 victory against No. 20 Tennessee — a riveting, occasionally messy, three-hour epic. It looked as if it would be none of those things. Oklahoma took its customary early lead on its customary home runs (one from Grace Lyons and two from Jana Johns). But the script changed when Tennessee’s Rylie West hit a solo home run off Jordy Bahl to cut the deficit to 4-2 in the top of the fifth inning — the first extra-base hit Bahl allowed as a collegian. By the end of the inning, Bahl was out (temporarily) and the game was tied. Tennessee had opportunities to win in the seventh and ninth, but the Sooners leveled the score each time against Ashley Rogers. The Lady Vols had another chance to win in the 10th, after Kelcy Leach scored on an error in the top of the inning. But with two outs and the tiebreaker-runner on third base in the bottom of the inning, Jayda Coleman went up for a Rogers pitch and drove it over the temporary fence in left field. Whew. And we didn’t even get to Karen Weekly getting tossed.

But what does it mean? First, no one wants to pitch to Alo, who walked three times and was hit by a pitch. Second, Bahl wasn’t perfect, allowing seven hits and four earned runs in 8.1 innings. But in her first brush with adversity, she re-entered and finished with 16 strikeouts. Third, good lord, Oklahoma is going to smash its own home run record. Johns hit three in the doubleheader and the Sooners hit nine. And lastly, in addition to the fact that Kiki Milloy can play for us any day, the Lady Vols showed that the Sooners may be unbeaten but they are not invincible.

2. The Volunteers sign up for Megan Faraimo’s Strikeout Foundation. The only thing that stopped Megan Faraimo was UCLA scoring the game-winning run. There’s settling in, and then there’s whatever Faraimo did against Tennessee. She gave up a homer and a double to start the game and well, there wasn’t much offense after. Faraimo struck out a career-high 18 in UCLA’s 2-1 extra-inning win. She rarely found herself in three-ball counts and 10 of the last 11 outs all came via the K. Read more about Faraimo’s effort here. 

3. Danielle Williams finishes off Washington’s very bad day. Both teams wear purple. Both have proven aces but uncertain depth in the circle. Both have difference makers in the heart of the order. Both have coaches who have been to the final round of the World Series. So which would you rather be: Northwestern or Washington? It wasn’t a question in the preseason, but it’s more of one after the Wildcats defeated the Huskies 1-0 behind Williams’ second shutout of the weekend and a Rachel Lewis home run. There was a bright side for the Pac-12 team, which got a good pitching performance from Kelley Lynch (the sort of secondary pitching effort the Wildcats didn’t get in their rough nightcap against Cal State Fullerton). But coupled with an earlier 10-0 loss against Missouri when things went awry for Gabbie Plain and her teammates gave her no help, it’s clear which team in purple has the edge in momentum entering March.

4. Pitching one-upmanship. Runs have been hard to come by for Stanford opponents at the DeMarini Invitational. Stanford followed up a no-hitter on Friday night with a perfect game on Saturday. Junior Alana Vawter threw the first perfect game for the Cardinal since 2013 in a 10-0 five-inning win over Fresno State. Vawter had eight strikeouts and no walks to beat the Bulldogs. A day earlier, sophomore Regan Krause threw a no-hitter in a 10-0 five-inning win over Mount St. Mary’s. The back-to-back no-hitter and perfect game is the first for Stanford since Tegan Gehart had a perfect game and two consecutive no-hitters in 2010. 

5. Fairfield is USF’s kryptonite. Here are some of the programs USF doesn’t have an all-time losing record against: Arizona State, Baylor, Georgia, Oklahoma and Stanford. Guess which program USF hasn’t beaten in three attempts? Behind sophomore Allie Bridgman’s five-hit shutout, Fairfield stunned No. 22 USF 4-0 in Tampa. It’s not even the first time that Fairfield beat a ranked USF team. The Stags,  just 2-7 this season, did that back in 2012. Then again, USF ended that season in the Women’s College World Series. So maybe things could be worse.

6. Clark sprints to history. Clemson sophomore McKenzie Clark hit the first inside-the-park home run in the young program’s history with a shot to the wall in right-center field against Akron. The Racer outfielders collided attempting to reach the ball as the speedy Clark circled the bases. An inning earlier, freshman Aby Vieira started the scoring for the Tigers by belting a grand slam for her first career home run.

7. UMBC’s Kya Matter was dealing. The freshman threw a no-hitter with a school-record 18 strikeouts and did it with no margin for error. The Retrievers were locked in a scoreless tie with Coppin State entering the bottom of the seventh inning. That’s when junior Courtney Coppersmith stroked a walk-off single for a 1-0 win. Matter allowed only one walk in her rookie masterpiece.

8. Josie Muffley was going to make darn sure that No. 4 Florida State made this list. And not in ignominious fashion. The Seminoles (again) flirted with disaster Sunday against Indiana. It looked for a time like Hoosiers freshman Heather Johnson’s first career start would be one for the ages. But leading 1-0, Indiana ran itself into trouble on a squeeze in the sixth inning. That was all the opening Muffley and the Seminoles needed. Her leadoff triple in the bottom of the sixth, the ball getting under a dive from the right fielder and rolling to the fence, fueled a three-run rally capped by yet another clutch Mack Leonard home run. And lest the Hoosiers get any ideas about a comeback, Muffley sealed the game like this:

9. Western Kentucky keeps finding ways to win in the clutch. The Hilltoppers beat Illinois State 4-3 for their third walk-off win of the season. This may have been the wackiest one of all. WKU trailed 3-1 entering the bottom of the seventh inning. The Hilltoppers scored their first run of the inning on a throwing  error. They scored the tying run on a wild pitch, and the winning run came around from second after the catcher threw the ball away. The Hilltoppers improved to 11-1.

10. Was Cal-Fresno State about more than nostalgia? A two-game set between Cal and Fresno State might have been the story of the weekend a couple of decades ago. We’re a long way from the Bulldogs and Bears winning national titles in 1998 and 2002, respectively, and both teams entered this weekend a considerable distance from the Top 25. But the scale of Cal’s success this week, winning 10-0 on Saturday and 6-0 a day earlier, at least draws the eye back to the proud Pac-12 program. A day after hitting a three-run home run as the designated player, redshirt sophomore Sona Halajian pitched a four-hit shutout Saturday (and drove in another run at the plate). Maybe the Bears aren’t back, but they had a good couple of days.

11. Central Michigan endures a scary situation. CMU was involved in a bus accident on Friday night while playing in a tournament in Conway, S.C. The coaches and players suffered only minor injuries, and the team took the field and beat Dartmouth 2-0 on Saturday night.

On their return to the hotel after Friday’s games, the bus the Chippewas were traveling in crashed when the driver suffered a medical emergency. CMU head coach McCall Salmon said the bus proceeded to “travel more than 250 yards uncontrollably at 45 mph.” Four players missed the game against Dartmouth.

“It was a very traumatic event,” Salmon said. “Just getting them back on a bus today … (it was a) very, very, very emotional day. Getting out and playing was the best medicine for us just so we could kind of focus on softball. I told them the game wasn’t going to let them lose today because the game knows what they put into it and that they deserved to win this game. And that’s how we performed.”

12. Kowalik runs into the record book. Kentucky senior catcher Kayla Kowalik scored her 174th career run to break the school record as the Wildcats capped a perfect 4-0 weekend at the Strikeout Cancer Classic with a win over Long Island. Kowalik set the record on an RBI double by Lauren Johnson in the third inning after leading off with a double. Kowalik surpassed former teammate Abbey Cheek, who scored 173 runs from 2016-19.

Long Ball Re-Run: Corinne Badger is having a weekend. One day after hitting four home runs over two games, the Stony Brook junior catcher hit a 3-run walk-off homer to lead the Seawolves to a 4-3 win over Brown. Badger is 5 for 8 with five home runs in the FIU Tournament.

Bonus: The Mardi Gras Mambo provides a unique opportunity for participating teams. The programs had the chance to ride in the local Mardi Gras parade on their own individual floats on Saturday morning in Youngsville, La. The players threw cups, stuffed animals, rubber chickens and beads to fans lining the parade route.