Baylor
#3 Oregon
No. 15 SB's Season Ends at WCWS
6/3/2017 12:00:00 AM | Softball
June 3, 2017
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Glenn Moore had every reason to believe it was about to happen again Saturday afternoon in Baylor's elimination game at the Women's College World Series.
Sure, he was thinking of the Lady Bears' miraculous comeback from a seven-run deficit to beat Kentucky, 8-7, here in 2014. But, even fresher on his mind, were the three-run homers by Shelby Friudenberg and "Goose" McGlaun that got them here with tournament wins over James Madison and Arizona, respectively.
"I just kept believing that a ball was about to leave the park, and we were going to have a walk-off," the 17th-year head coach said. "But, it didn't happen."
No-hit through the first four innings and trailing third-seeded Oregon, 5-0, Baylor rallied with four runs in the fifth and loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh. But, Megan Kleist came on in relief and sat down the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters with a pair of strikeouts and a comebacker to the circle as the Ducks held on for a 7-4 victory.
"I think I was saying some `Hail Marys,''' said Oregon coach Mike White, whose team advanced to the WCWS semifinals later that night with a 4-1 win over LSU.
For the first time in four World Series appearances, Baylor (48-15) is going home without a win. Semifinalists in 2011 and 2014, the Lady Bears fell to Oklahoma, 6-3, Thursday night at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium before coming up short in their comeback bid against Oregon.
"We dug ourselves in a hole once again," said Moore, whose team faced deficits in six of its eight NCAA tournament games, "and you just can't do that this time of the year and expect to keep coming out of it. It's going to bite you, eventually. We didn't play clean ball this tournament, but we had our moments and we kept fighting."
They did, down to their very last out.
"I reminded them actually, like, `Hey, we've done this before. We can do it,''' said senior third baseman Lindsey Cargill, who drove in a run with an RBI groundout in the fifth and reached base with a single through the right side in the seventh. "And I thought we could do it, because we're fighters up there."
Oregon (54-7) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first three innings off Baylor starter Gia Rodoni (18-4), with all four runs scoring with two outs. The Ducks scored on a wild pitch and Jenna Lilley's double in the second, then tacked on two more after a 73-minute rain delay on Mia Camuso's double to left in the third to end Rodoni's day.
"I didn't feel like the rain bothered me much," Rodoni said. "It was just a good offense I was going against, and I knew it would be tough. They just got the better of me today."
To her credit, senior pitcher Kelsee Selman came on in relief and calmed things down, sitting down the Ducks in order in the fourth and sixth innings. Oregon added another two-out run in the top of the fifth when Shannon Rhodes flared a single to left that plated Alexis Mack.
"It does make it harder," Moore said of Oregon's first five runs coming with two outs. "And we will talk all summer about that game. We'll throw in Arizona a little bit, but that particular game, knowing how close we were . . . but it's like that in everything you do. Arizona will talk about us. You can't beat yourself up too much, because it is a game of inches."
Trailing 5-0 at that point, the Lady Bears had just three baserunners through the first four innings - back-to-back walks by Cargill and Kyla Walker to open the game and Camuso's two-base throwing error in the third on a Cargill grounder.
That changed in a hurry in the fifth.
After cruising through the first four frames, Oregon freshman starter Miranda Elish (12-0) hit Taylor Ellis with a pitch to lead off the fifth. Catcher Sydney Christensen, who came in after the rain delay, broke up the no-hitter with an infield single up the middle.
"I really didn't think of it being a no-hitter until I got the hit," Christensen said. "I was just up there for my seniors. I'm really close with all four of them, and I didn't want it to be their last game."
Baylor got its first run on the board when second baseman Lauren Lindvall tried to get the lead runner on Maddison Kettler's grounder and Lilley muffed the throw at third, allowing Ellis to come home.
Cargill scored Christensen with an RBI groundout to short, then Walker cut the deficit to 5-3 with a single up the middle that plated Kettler. Friudenberg, hitless in her first five World Series at-bats, followed up Ari Hawkins' sacrifice bunt with an RBI single that made it a one-run game going into the sixth.
"Ever since Arizona, throughout the Super Regional, we've tried to stay more calm and collected," said Walker, who finished with a school-record 89 hits this season. "Even though we went down, we were still in this game. We believe in each other. We went down in the third and fourth, but we still had so many at-bats that we could turn it around. Even at Arizona, we were down, but we still had three more at-bats to turn it around, and we did. So, I still believed that we could."
Oregon failed to capitalize on Lilley's two-out triple in the sixth, but dampened Baylor's comeback hopes with Camuso's bases-loaded double in the seventh stretching the lead to 7-4.
"I threw a rise ball to her, and I threw like three in a row," Selman said. "But, I had a 3-2 count, so I was just trying to get her to pop up somewhere. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it, but she's a good hitter. I was just trying my best to get her out and trust my defense, but it's hard when the hits fall like that."
Things seemed to be going Baylor's way, though, in the bottom of the seventh. Kettler led off with a walk, followed by singles by Cargill and Walker that loaded the bases with nobody out and the dangerous 3-4-5 hitters coming to the plate as the potential winning run.
"It's a tough environment," said White, who turned to Kleist to face the heart of Baylor's order. "They had the kids up that killed Arizona - Friudenberg and McGlaun. Those kids made some noise in Arizona, so it was a tough part of the order coming up. But as usual, when our backs are to the wall, we tend to perform our best. And that's what Megan Kleist did in that situation."
Mixing in what Moore called a "devastating changeup" with a fastball in the upper 60s, Kleist struck out Hawkins and Friudenberg and then got a soft comebacker by McGlaun, throwing to first to end the game and Baylor's season.
"Well, you can't draw it up any better than that if you put yourself in the position we were in," Moore said. "But, we fought back and gave ourselves a chance to win. . . . With this team, I've seen it so many times, I just kept believing that a ball was about to leave the park and we were going to have a walk-off. But, it didn't happen. (Kleist) came in and devastated us with that changeup and beat some good hitters."
Moore said Cargill, who broke the single-season program record with a .430 batting average as one of the team's four seniors, was a "bar-setter."
"You're only as strong as your weakest link, but everybody is trying to live up to her standards," Moore said. "She never showed up for a practice that she didn't give 100 percent when nobody was looking. She's unbelievably passionate about this game. But, Lindsey is bigger than just softball. "She came to school, and I didn't know how she'd do academically, quite honestly, and she ended up graduating early and is about to get her masters. She's an Academic All-American. So, I'm proud of that kid for more reasons than just softball. But, she certainly left this program, as you would love to do, in better shape than she found it. And it was in pretty good shape when she found it."
THE RUNDOWN
OKLAHOMA CITY - No. 15-seeded Baylor softball (48-15) saw its historic season come to an end, falling to the No. 3 seed and top-ranked Oregon Ducks on a rainy Saturday afternoon at USA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Gia Rodoni (18-4) started in the circle for the Lady Bears, chased after 2.2 innings of work with six hits, four runs, and three strikeouts.
Kelsee Selman kept the Ducks within striking distance for the Lady Bears, working 4.1 innings in relief and allowing five hits, three runs, two earned, and striking out three.
Oregon took the early lead in the top of the second, scoring two, two-out runs on a wild pitch and RBI double to go up 2-0.
With two outs in the bottom of the second, the game was halted in a nearly hour and 15 minute rain delay. Coming off of the delay, a groundout ended the frame at the plate for the Lady Bears.
The Ducks added on in the top of the third, with a two-out RBI double plating two more runs for Oregon, forcing Selman on in relief.
Oregon kept the pressure on, taking another two-out run in the fifth to push the Ducks' lead to 5-0.
The Lady Bears found their spark in the home half of the fifth.
After Taylor Ellis led off the inning with a hit by pitch, Sydney Christensen broke up the no-hit bid with a single up the middle.
Maddison Kettler followed by reaching safely on a fielder's choice and error on the Ducks, allowing Ellis to score and putting Christensen on third.
Lindsey Cargill posted an RBI groundout to score Christensen, followed by an RBI single by Kyla Walker that scored Kettler.
A sac bunt by Ari Hawkins proved to be crucial, pushing Walker to second with two outs.
Shelby Friudenberg muscled a single up the middle, allowing Walker to score from second to bring the Lady Bears within one, trailing 5-4.
Oregon scratched out two more runs on a bases loaded RBI double, taking a 7-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
Down to its last three outs and facing elimination, the Lady Bears looked to be mounting another historic and thrilling comeback.
Kettler led off the inning with a four-pitch walk, followed by back-to-back singles from Cargill and Walker to load the bases with no outs.
The late-game heroic spark fell short for the Lady Bears, with two strikeouts and a groundout finishing the comeback bid and the 2017 season for BU.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Lindsey Cargill finished the 2017 season with a .430 batting average, a new program record, topping teammate Kyla Walker's record from 2016 (.415).
- Walker bested her freshman hitting clip with a .418 average in her sophomore season, setting a new single-season hits record with 89.
- The 2017 team also set a new program record for batting average, hitting .320 as a team to replace the 2005 and 2016 teams' previous high mark (.319).
- The Lady Bears were held winless at the WCWS for the first time in the program's four trips to the tournament.
TOP QUOTES
"Well, let me first open by saying how proud I am of the fight this team has, and anybody that followed us throughout the postseason knows this team doesn't quit. They're a gritty bunch with a lot of talent. But we dug ourselves in a hole once again, and you just can't do that this time of year and expect to keep coming out of it. It's going to bite you eventually, and we didn't play clean ball this tournament. But we had our moments, and we kept fighting. You know, I'm just -- at the beginning of the year, not many people thought we had -- I think we were voted to finish fourth in the Big 12, so this team overcame a lot, and they became a dang good team, very respected by everybody across the country, and it was because of hard work and paying the price and getting to this point. But it's great to be in the World Series. It's the first time for us not to win a game in the World Series, so that's difficult to deal with, but we're here and a lot of people aren't. Very proud of this bunch." - Baylor head coach Glenn Moore
"Ever since Arizona throughout the Super Regionals we've tried to stay more calm and collected. I think we stayed calm today. Even though we went down, we were still in this game. We believe in each other that -- we went down in like the third, fourth inning so we still had so many at-bats that we could turn around, and even at Arizona we were down but we still had three more at-bats so we could turn it around, and we did, so I still believed that we could." - Baylor outfielder Kyla Walker
"I can say that this program has taught me a lot for the future. It's very emotional right now because I am so proud of every single team that I've played on during my four years, and this year has been awesome just with this team, and I've learned a lot from Coach Moore and the coaching staff, and I'm just excited to see what the future has for them." - Baylor infielder Lindsey Cargill
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor concludes its 2017 season with four seniors, Riley Browder, Lindsey Cargill, Ari Hawkins, and Kelsee Selman, closing out their careers as Lady Bears. BU will kick off its next season in February 2018, with eyes set on a return to OKC.
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