After waiting out a six-hour delay due to lightning and heavy rainfall, No. 18/16 Baylor softball (38-18) saw an early lead disappear after a late push by No. 14/14 Texas A&M (43-16), ending the 2018 season for the Lady Bears in the NCAA College Station Regional on Sunday evening at Davis Diamond.
The Lady Bears had the upper hand early, scoring a run in each of the first three innings.
Playing as the designated home team, the Lady Bears struck first in the opening frame, with Nicky Dawson and Jessie Scroggins reaching on back-to-back singles.
Shelby Friudenberg walked to load the bases, with Goose McGlaun putting BU on the board with an RBI groundout.
Taking a 1-0 lead into the second, Hannah Thompson drove a one-out single to left, with Hannah Smith entering to run for her at first.
Taylor Ellis moved Smith into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt, setting up for an RBI double by Kyla Walker to push the BU lead to 2-0 through two.
The Aggies would tie the game with a pair of runs in the top of the third, but the Lady Bears responded in the home half of the frame.
Friudenberg drew a four-pitch walk, with Alyssa Avalos coming on to run for her. McGlaun notched her second RBI of the game, ripping a double to left center that would score Avalos from first.
Taking a 3-2 lead back into the top of the fifth, the Lady Bears hit a speed bump after an overturned call on a play at first opened the door for a big rally for the Aggies.
After a third strike was trapped by Thompson behind the plate, the throw down to first pulled BU first baseman Shelby Friudenberg off the bag, with the call initially made by first base umpire, Cody Little, that her foot landed back on the bag before the runner.
Home plate umpire, Dustin Douglass, overturned the call from his vantage point behind the dish, giving the Aggies two runners on and nobody out.
The Aggies would go on to score seven runs in the inning, six of which came with two outs after the overturned call.
The Lady Bears would take one back in the bottom of the fifth on a one-out home run for Shelby Friudenberg, the 49th and final bomb of her record-breaking collegiate career.
A&M added a run in the top of the sixth, pushing the Aggie lead back to six at 10-4, standing as the final score of the ballgame.
HIGHLIGHTS
Jessie Scroggins ended her Baylor career with a tremendous senior season, closing out her run at BU with the single-season batting average record of .461, 31 points higher than the previous record, set in 2017 by Lindsey Cargill (.430).
Kyla Walker held pace with Scroggins throughout the season, finishing with the second-highest single-season hitting mark at .433.
Walker has exceeded the previous single-season record in all three of her seasons at Baylor.
Shelby Friudenberg finished her career as the program’s all-time record holder in career home runs (49) and RBIs (194).
Gia Rodoni finished with 268 strikeouts on the year, the fifth-most in a single season in program history. Whitney Canion holds the top four spots in BU’s record books.
Baylor fell to 47-30 all-time in NCAA Tournament play and 33-13 in the regional rounds of competition.
Baylor advanced to the regional finals for the sixth-straight season.
WHAT’S NEXT
Baylor will be back for the 2019 season with as many as 13 returners.
