May 5, 2017 Box Score
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
With a slap-hitting attack led by Kyla Walker and Lindsey Cargill, the No. 13/17 Baylor softball team can beat you with speed.
But, in Friday's series opener against Texas, the Lady Bears (40-10, 12-4) did it with a pair of long balls and the lethal left arm of centerfielder Jessie Scroggins.
Sydney Christensen and Shelby McGlaun launched their sixth and ninth home runs, respectively, and Scroggins threw out Kelli Hanzel at the plate to preserve a 2-1 win over the Longhorns (29-21, 6-9) before a sellout crowd of 1,324 at Getterman Stadium.
"Who would have thought we'd beat Texas on the long ball," coach Glenn Moore said. "The short game really wasn't a factor tonight. We won the game a different way, and that was big."
With Baylor starter Kelsee Selman (20-7) taking a no-hitter into the fifth, it looked like the homers by Christensen in the third and McGlaun in the fourth would be enough for the Lady Bears to win their fifth home game in a row against Texas.
Baylor had other scoring chances, but UT freshman catcher Taylor Ellsworth threw out two baserunners and Longhorn starter Erica Wright (6-6) worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third when Cargill flied out to left-center field.
Selman breezed through the first four innings, retiring the first 12 batters and giving up only a couple hard-hit balls. Ellsworth broke up the no-hit bid with a single to center, followed by a double off the wall by Hanzel and Bekah Alcozer's grounder in the hole at shortstop that plated pinch-runner Tuesday DerMargosian.
"Kelsee was dealing pretty good early on," Moore said, "but they just kept fighting off the pitches and started barreling up on a few and made a game of it."
In the top of the seventh, Selman recorded two quick outs on pop-ups. But, Hanzel kept it alive with a bloop single that fell between second baseman Ari Hawkins and Walker in shallow right field.
Alcozer hit a couple long balls well foul down the left-field line before drawing a walk on a nine-pitch at-bat, putting the tying run in scoring position.
Moore said he visited Selman in the circle to try and "relax her a little bit."
"Alcozer was seeing the ball well, and I was OK with walking her," he said. "You never want to light somebody's fire by pitching to one over the other, but she fouled off that ball a long ways. I felt we had one area where we could throw to that we could have a chance to keep it in the park right there. We tried that and ended up walking her. I was OK with that, and it certainly worked out."
But, only because of Scroggins.
Charging on Jade Gortarez' sharply hit single to center, Scroggins got to the ball quickly and gunned down Hanzel at the plate with a perfect strike to Christensen at the plate.
"You just try to make sure you have it under control," Scroggins said. "We're up 2-1, and the tying run is on second, and you don't want to score. So, you've got to give her the best throw you've got and throw her out at home."
Moore said the Longhorns made a good decision to send Hanzel on the play.
"I would have sent the runner, too," he said. "She had to make a perfect throw, and she did. That was a tough play for the catcher to make, to hang on to the ball."
As soon as Hanzel rounded third, Selman said she "knew immediately" that Scroggins was going to throw her out, "because she's one of the best outfielders I have ever played with in my entire life."
"She doesn't really get to show it off too much, but when she does it's big statements like that," Selman said. "It's always on the money. Even just throwing the ball to first and getting runners out at first, she's always on the money and always ready. It's awesome to have her out there."
With the series shifting to McCombs Field in Austin for the next two games, the Lady Bears will try to clinch the series and the No. 2 seed for next week's Big 12 Championship in Oklahoma City with a win in Saturday's 1 p.m. game. Oklahoma State (33-21, 12-5) fell a half-game behind Baylor with a pair of losses to No. 6 Oklahoma (56-8, 16-1).
"This was a big game," Moore said. "It was huge. It's our only home game, and now we've got to go down there in a hostile environment. We need to win the series, and now we've got two chances to do that."
THE RUNDOWN WACO, Texas - No. 13/17 Baylor softball (40-10, 12-4 Big 12) opened its final regular season Big 12 series in dramatic fashion, winning 2-1 over the Texas Longhorns (29-21, 6-9 Big 12) on Friday evening at Getterman Stadium.
Kelsee Selman (20-7) went the distance for the Lady Bears, spinning 7.0 innings in the circle and allowing just four hits and one run, striking out three.
Selman carried a perfect game through the first four frames, broken up by a lead-off single in the fifth.
The Lady Bear offense was paced by a pair of solo home runs to left field, with Sydney Christensen drilling one in the bottom of the third and Shelby McGlaun smashing one in the home half of the fourth.
The Longhorns were able to chip out a run in the top of the fifth, but Selman and the defense held strong, leading into the top of the seventh.
Selman got two quick outs, forcing a fly out and pop out. After a two-out single and a walk put the tying run in scoring position for the Longhorns, a single into shallow centerfield at Jessie Scroggins drew the junior in just beyond the outfield grass, with the baserunner rounding third and heading for home.
Scroggins came up firing with a perfect throw to the plate for Sydney Christensen, allowing the Lady Bear catcher to hang on and slap the tag down, winning the series opener for the Baylor squad.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Baylor won its fifth-straight home game over the Longhorns at Getterman Stadium.
- Shelby "Goose" McGlaun launched her team-best ninth home run of the season.
- Lindsey Cargill extended her on-base streak to 28, tying Ari Hawkins (28, 2017) for the third-longest streak in program history.
- Cargill posted her 239th career hit, now eight shy of tying the program record (Naomi Fitzgerald, 1998-2001).
- Kyla Walker and Cargill each cracked the top-10 in single-season hits, with the duo both taking their hit totals on the year to 70, tying Kathy Shelton (2013) for the No. 10 spot.
- The Lady Bears moved a half-game ahead in the Big 12 standings over Oklahoma State, putting Baylor one win or one Cowgirl loss away from clinching the No. 2 seed for the Big 12 Softball Championship.
TOP QUOTES
"We were up 2-1 and the tying run is on second, and you don't want her to score. So you've got to give her the best throw you've got and throw her out at home. It's huge. It's our last home game, and we want to go out with a bang. We did, and now we just have to keep it going into this weekend when we head to Texas." - Baylor centerfielder Jessie Scroggins
"It was really big, knowing that this was our last Big 12 game at home. This is a big series to start off with the win. It's just what we needed. Just having games like that where they're close - where the last inning gets close - is the stuff we need for going further into Regionals and Super Regionals. I think it's really important to have games like that to help us out in the long run." - Baylor pitcher Kelsee Selman.
"That was a great way to end our home season. I would have liked it to be a little greater difference in the score. They made a good decision. I would have sent the runner, too. She had to make a perfect throw and she did. That was a tough play for the catcher to make. I think we just saw the Texas team that hadn't been there all year. They're very capable and we knew that. Who would have thought we'd beat Texas on the long ball. The short game we've had really wasn't a factor tonight. It was a different game for us to play. We won the game a different way and that was big." - Baylor head coach Glenn Moore
STAT OF THE GAME
40 - the number of wins in 2017 for the Lady Bears, posting five-straight 40-win seasons for the first time in program history.
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor will close out the remaining two games of the Texas series in Austin, facing the Longhorns in 1 p.m. games on Saturday, May 6, and Sunday, May 7.
#SicEm
