No. 13/15 Baylor softball (39-10, 11-4 Big 12) could not find an answer for the steady attack by the RV/NR Oklahoma State (32-19, 11-3 Big 12) offense, dropping the series finale, 9-4, on Saturday afternoon at Getterman Stadium.
For the fourth-consecutive season, the Lady Bears took a 2-1 series win over the Cowgirls, after sweeping Friday’s doubleheader.
Kelsee Selman (19-7) shouldered the loss in the circle, going 5.2 innings and allowing nine total and six earned runs on 11 hits. Gia Rodoni worked the final 1.1 frames, allowing two hits.
The Lady Bears were the first to break through, scoring a run in the bottom of the first on a single by Shelby Friudenberg that moved Kyla Walker to third. The throw from short over to first sailed to the wall, allowing Walker to score on the play to give BU the 1-0 lead.
The Cowgirls posted a four-spot in response in the top of the second, using two hits and two Baylor errors to go up 4-1 after two.
The Lady Bears took the game back to even, clawing back three runs in the bottom of the third.
Taylor Ellis got it started with a single roped through the left side of the infield.
Jessie Scroggins followed with a tight rope single that spun up the chalk down the third base line, staying fair to put two on with no outs.
Kyla Walker would lace another single up the middle, loading the bases.
Ari Hawkins put a fly ball down the line in left deep enough to score Ellis on the sac fly, keeping runners on second and third for Shelby Friudenberg.
Friudenberg dropped in a single that landed on the chalk down the left field line, allowing Walker and Scroggins to come around to tie the game back at 4-4.
The Cowgirls caught fire late, posting a pair of runs in the fifth and three in the sixth to run away with the 9-4 victory.
HIGHLIGHTS
Kyla Walker paced the offense in the three-game series, posting a .667 hitting clip on 8-for-12 hitting, scoring six of Baylor’s 16 runs.
Three other Lady Bears hit at or above .500 with Shelby Friudenberg (.571), Jessie Scroggins (.500), and Lindsey Cargill (.500) all contributing to Baylor’s .375 hitting mark in the series.
Cargill extended her on-base streak to 27, passing Kaitlyn Thumann (2014) and Kathy Shelton (2011-2012) to take sole possession of No. 4 in Baylor’s record books in consecutive games to reach base safely.
Saturday’s game marked the 10-year reunion of the 2007 Big 12 Champion and Women’s College World Series team, with 13 of the 15-member team returning to Getterman Stadium and two former managers. The first pitch featured the 2007 battery, with Lisa Ferguson throwing to catcher Chelsi Lake.
The game also marked the 2017 Senior Day, honoring the careers of the team’s four seniors: Riley Browder, Lindsey Cargill, Ari Hawkins, and Kelsee Selman.
TOP QUOTE
“We’re heading into a week of finals. That’s always a concern when you talk about distractions. They’re already up late at night studying, preparing for those. Typically this time of year you’ll see some distractions, and that’s probably one of the reasons we weren’t locked in as much as we could have been. Maybe the fact we won two games yesterday, not real tough battles, but we won both of those so we may have set back on our heels a little bit, and we got a wake-up call. We’ll use this to get them ready and hopefully benefit from it.” – Baylor head coach Glenn Moore
STAT OF THE GAME
.533 – the combined batting average of the top-five spots in the lineup for the weekend, with Scroggins- Walker- Hawkins-Friudenberg-Cargill scoring 13 of Baylor’s 16 runs and driving in nine of the team’s 13 RBI.
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor closes out the 2017 regular season, playing a split-series with Texas starting on May 5 in Waco. The Lady Bears then trek to Austin for games two and three on May 6-7.
