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No. 15 Baylor Softball Stumbles in Opening Game of WCWS

Posted at 8:00 PM, Jun 02, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-02 21:00:37-04

No. 15-seeded Baylor softball (48-14) dropped the opening game of play in the Women’s College World Series to No. 10 Oklahoma, falling 6-3 on Thursday evening at USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla.

Kelsee Selman (24-9) took the start and first 5.0 frames, allowing nine hits, six runs, and striking out one.

Gia Rodoni came on in relief in the bottom of the sixth, retiring the Sooners in order with a strikeout.

In the home half of the first, the Sooners loaded the bases with one out, bringing the first run on a sac fly to deep left-center and clearing the bases on a three-run home run to take the early 4-0 lead.

Baylor took one back in the top of the second, with Shelby McGlaun leading off by reaching safely on an infield error.

With Riley Browder pinch running on first base for McGlaun, Maddison Kettler legged out an infield single on a bunt, moving Browder to second on the hit and Browder advancing to third on a muffed throw at first.

Jessie Scroggins pulled through with the RBI fielder’s choice grounder, scoring Browder to cut the Sooner lead to 4-1.

OU kept the pressure on, plating a run in the home half of the third and one in the fourth, to take the 6-1 lead into the seventh inning.

The late-game heroics from the Tucson Super Regional looked to have followed the Lady Bears to OKC, with Kettler leading off with a single through the middle.

Scroggins and Caitlin Charlton reached on back-to-back infield errors, with Charlton’s driving in Kettler on an RBI.

With one out, Cargill reached on a fielder’s choice, driving in Scroggins with an RBI to cut the OU lead to 6-3.

The Lady Bears luck would fall short, as a ground out notched the third out to drop the opening game of the double-elimination tournament.

HIGHLIGHTS

Lindsey Cargill passed Harmony Schwethelm (2005) and Ashley Monceaux (2007) for the No. 2 spot in the Baylor record book for single-season hits, with Cargill’s 82 hits in 2017 trailing only teammate Kyla Walker’s 87.

Maddison Kettler had the spark for the Lady Bear offense, going a perfect 3-for-3 with a run scored.

Gia Rodoni made her debut in the WCWS, dropping her postseason ERA for 2017 down to 0.35, having allowed just one run in 20.0 innings pitched.

TOP QUOTES
“Obviously disappointed in the outcome of the game. I thought the first inning really doomed us. Playing a team like Oklahoma, you've got to keep the score close to have a chance to win. Their pitching is too good. I'm proud of the way we fought. We're that type of team. We're not going to give up. I've never seen this team quit fighting, and they fought hard and we made a little run at the end, but we dug too deep of a hole to come out of it. You know, it's a double elimination, and 2014, I just told the team, we came here and got run ruled by Florida, team fought back and played on Sunday and won two big games on Saturday, and I expect this team to fight like crazy to be able to do that and make a run for it” – Baylor head coach Glenn Moore

STAT OF THE GAME #1

.583 – the batting average of Maddison Kettler against Oklahoma in 2017, going 7-for-12 in the four meetings between the two squads.

WHAT’S NEXT

Baylor will face Oregon in an elimination game on Saturday, June 3, at 1:30 p.m. at USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.