Softball Clinches Series - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Second Softball Run-Rule Clinches Series Win

(Photos, as is typical, by Jared Anderson)

OK, let's be honest, Boston College is hardly the creme of the ACC crop when it comes to softball.  In fact, they're tied with Pitt for last place in the league.

(Seniors being honored for Senior Day.)

But the Cards have clinched the series for the weekend already with a pair of run-rule wins over BC and Ulmer field.  Yesterday's win was an 8-0 shutout with a walk off two run homer in the 5th, so it was definitely a win with some style points.

The squad celebrated Senior Day yesterday, doing it on the second to last home game rather than the last as some family members needed to return home today, meaning they would have missed out on the celebrations if they had been held today.  The honored seniors were a student manager Sean Mac Williams and a graduate manager, as well as player alumna, Kendall Smith.  Players honored were Elana Ornelas, Makayla Hurst, Hannah File, Taja Felder, and of course, Taylor Roby.

(Head Coach Holly Aprile happy with the
performance of her team.  Korbe Otis on 3rd.)

We saw two pitchers in this one, fittingly for Senior Day, Taylor Roby and Taja Felder, with Roby getting the start.

The offense started a little slow, but picked up momentum as the game went along.  After a blank first inning, Sarah Gordon led off the 2nd, and did so with a plonk off the scoreboard to open up the scoring.  UofL was able to get some other runners on the bases, but nothing productive came from them, including a picked off attempt to steal second base, which is unusual for this speedy UofL team.

(Daisy Hess with the sure-handed catch at
short-stop)

The Cards immediately gave up two outs to start the 3rd inning, but then got a bit of offense going.  Roby singled out to left field.  She then advanced to second on a Sarah Gordon at-bat.  Gordon got on first thanks to an error.  At that point, Mia Forsythe entered to pinch run for Roby.  Daisy Hess then also singled to left field, scoring Forsythe.  The score was 2-0 after three innings.

The offense really got rolling in the 4th inning.  Makayla Hurst, playing as designated player in the game, drew a walk.  She was then replaced on the basepaths by Pickle Winkler.  This was the second time Pickle came in to run for Hurst, which meant that Hurst would not be to re-enter again.  This will become important later.  Pickle advanced to second on a sacrifice by Elana Ornelas, and to third when Paige Geraghty reached on an error.  Runners on the corners, so of course Geraghty stole second.  An attempt to steal second when it's open is a virtual guarantee with this Cards team.  Korbe Otis then ripped a shot out to left field for a single, and got second when the fielder bobbled the ball.  She scored Pickle, and Geraghty in the process, pushing the lead to 4-0.

(Taylor Roby in mid pitch.  Easton Lotus playing
2nd in the background.)

Otis then scored when Easton Lotus singled, Taylor Roby singled moving Lotus to second.  Then Sarah Gordon came to the plate and had an big battle with the Eagle's pitcher...finally hitting a single to center field on the 9th pitch of the at-bat.  Lotus was able to make it home, Roby to third, and Gordon advanced to second on the throw.  That pushed the score to 6-0.

A bit of interest at the end of the inning, however, after a Daisy Hess walk, the next batter up would have been Pickle Winkler, but Holly Aprile threw everyone a curve ball by entering Taja Felder to hit.

 Folks,  Felder has been an important part of this team, but on offense?  Yeah, she's not been a factor there.  In fact, this was her first at-bat of the season!  This is also where the Hurst bit comes in to play.  This batting spot had been Hurst's for most of the game as DP batting place of Pickle who was playing right field, but Hurst was not able to re-enter after the pinch running.  It's still an interesting choice of batting options as, for example, Maddy Grant was still available to pinch hit. Felder had a look of what could be considered bemusement at the plate and she struck out to end the inning. 

(Easton Lotus sliding in to home).

Felder remained in the lineup in the top of the 5th, moving into the circle to pitch what would prove to be the final inning.  Felder would find herself in a bit of a jam with a pair of walks and a single for BC, but she was able to get a strikeout and a ground out to get out of it.  Would she remain in the 6th inning was the pressing question, that turned out to be moot.

In the bottom of the 5th, with one out, Paige Geraghty singled, turning the line-up over to the top of the line-up.  Korbe Otis decided she would end the game in style with a walk-off home run to center, scoring Geraghty, and trigging the run rule with the eight run lead after five innings.

(Korbe Otis walks it off, with Hannah File ready to
celebrate in the foreground.)

Boston College and UofL will, weather permitting, finish the series today with a noon start.  There's a small chance of rain at that time that ramps up to about a coin flip chance at 2pm, so an on-time start, and quick play may be necessary to get this one complete.  The stream should be available on ACC Network Extra.

Let's hope that goes better to play than yesterday where the game was supposed to start on ACCNX, thanks to the GT vs UNC game running long, but never actually showed up on the streaming service for some unspecified reason at the four letter channel company.  So if you tried to tune in yesterday and couldn't find it anywhere, it wasn't just you, the feed was being sent from Ulmer, but somewhere up in Connecticut, the wires got crossed.  The game did, of course, show up on ACC Network linear once GT finished off the win over UNC, but it never did show up live on the streaming side of things.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(Can you name the former Cardinals WBB player on the right side of this photo?)

Case, Jared, Paulie, and myself made the call yesterday for the CCRHP.  We tried to stay on the positive side of things, but we did talk HVL's transfer to LSU, which did put a bit of a downer on part of the show.  We started off with Softball, though, and that has certainly brought some joy and excitement in the past couple of weeks.

As always, you can find it at your favorite podcast directory, with a direct link to the Spotify, former anchor.fm, site at: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Softball-Still-on-a-Tear-HVL-Fallout-e237tsg

-- JMcA