Friday, February 17
Waco, Texas
3 PM
Baylor
3
vs
0
Stephen F. Austin
HISTORY: Orme Spins Seven-Inning Perfect Game in Home Opener
2/17/2023 4:26:00 PM | Softball
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Breezing through the first five innings in record time, Baylor junior pitcher Dariana Orme stopped for just a second and tried to figure out why Friday's home opener against SFA was "flying by really fast."
Taking a quick peek at the Getterman Stadium scoreboard, she saw nothing but a string of zeroes for the visiting Lumberjacks. Mystery solved.
Finishing off the first seven-inning perfect game in program history, Orme (2-1) picked up her career-high 10th strikeout to open the seventh, retired Madison Nguyen on a pop-up to shallow left field and then Mackenzie Bennett on a groundout to short for a 3-0 win over the Lumberjacks (5-4).
"I didn't even realize it was going on until halfway through the seventh inning," said catcher Sydney Collazos. "I was like, 'Wow, nobody's been on base.' But she threw a heck of a game. She was locked in the entire time, the defense was locked in the entire time. Everything came together how it should. It was amazing."
Baylor coach Glenn Moore has had some phenomenal pitchers in his 23 years with Baylor softball, including Whitney Canion, Heather Stearns, Kelsee Selman, Gia Rodoni and Hall of Famers Cristin Vitek and Lisa Ferguson. But none of them threw a perfect game.
"That just tells you how difficult it is to do that, especially in this day and age," said Moore, whose team improved to 5-1. "You had a lot more no-hitters back in the day when the hitters weren't quite as strong as they are today. Offenses are so much stronger and better than 20 years ago. It's more and more unusual to see that in our sport, and that makes it pretty phenomenal."
After missing the fall workouts with a pinched nerve in a rib, Orme was on a limited pitch count in a pair of three-inning starts in last weekend's tournament in Las Vegas, but she got through Friday's game with a total of 81 pitches.
"I feel great, honestly," said Orme, who had only one three-ball count in retiring 21-straight batters in the game. "I think the adrenaline is still kicking in. I think it'll be a big tell later tonight, but I feel so good."
The Bears wasted no time getting on the board, loading the bases in the bottom of the first on singles by McKenzie Wilson and Amber Toven and a four-pitch walk by Emily Hott. Sophomore first baseman Shaylon Govan, a transfer from SFA, gave Baylor the early lead with a first-pitch sacrifice fly to left that scored the speedy Wilson.
Putting together a two-out rally in the fourth, the Bears got an insurance run with a Collazos home run down the left-field line and extended the lead to 3-0 when Taylor Strain singled and scored on Wilson's RBI triple to the gap in right-center field.
Off the bat, Collazos said she wasn't sure if she had hit her third-career home run, especially as she saw Nguyen run to the wall in left.
"I was like, 'Dangit,' because the wind always blows in on this field," she said. "I'm just running, and I hear screaming, so I'm thinking she caught it. And then, the whole team came out, so I just kept running. I know you guys wanted to see me steal some bases, but I had to make it a little easier."
Wilson led Baylor's nine-hit attack with a 3-for-4 day after hitting just .188 with three hits in the Bears' 4-1 run at the UNLV Rebel Kickoff.
"Her timing was just a little off last weekend," Moore said of Wilson, who hit over .400 last season. "I've always said, if you get her out a couple of times, you don't want to face her the next time, because she's usually not going to continue that trend. We saw that today. She moved her contact point up a little bit and started making good, solid contact."
Orme was dominant from start to finish, striking out the side in the third and sixth and throwing just four pitches in a 1-2-3 fourth inning.
"It helps that she throws gas," Collazos said of Orme, who's been clocked at 74 mph. "She attacked those hitters. She wasn't playing around. She attacked those hitters and sat them down pretty quickly."
During the postgame interview, Orme was holding a staff with Exodus 14:15 inscribed on it, which says: "Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground."
"It's going to remind us of all the times that God has brought us over," Orme said. "To be able to reflect on that when I'm in the middle of a game, and I'm like, 'God, how am I going to make it? You've done it for my teammates, you've done it for me. You're going to do it again today.' It's an amazing tool that we get to use to just keep us focused on Christ."
LSU transfer Presleigh Pilon had her second multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-3, to raise her batting average to .388. Through the first six games, the Bears are hitting .404 as a team and have five players hitting over .500.
Arizona transfer Amber Toven has a six-game hitting streak with a .550 batting average and made the defensive play of the game when the shortstop fielded a sharp grounder and threw out Bennett at first base from her knees.
"We have an amazing defense," Orme said. "I think the play that Amber made at the end just shows you where we're headed with this team and the defense that we have. That's what you're looking at: Baylor softball is on the come-up. So, just wait on it."
On Day Two of the Getterman Classic, Baylor will face Longwood (2-4) at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Lacers play SFA (5-4) at 10 a.m., followed by SFA vs. No. 1-ranked Oklahoma (6-0) at 12:30 and OU vs. Army at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday's Baylor-Longwood game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with KCEN sports director Kurtis Quillin and former Baylor standout Kelley Levesque calling the action.
WACO, Texas -- Dariana Orme tossed the first seven-inning perfect game in Baylor softball history, leading the Bears to a 3-0 win over Stephen F. Austin in the home opener of the 2023 season, on a sunny Friday evening at Getterman Stadium.
Orme (2-1) used just 81 pitches over seven complete innings, fanning a career-high 10, to throw the first seven-inning perfect game in program history. A native of Vacaville, Calif., the junior retired all 21 hitters she faced, including striking out the side in the third and sixth innings.
A 2022 All-Big 12 second-team selection, Orme fanned five straight over the second and third innings and only allowed three would-be fair balls reach the outfield. She fired first-pitch strikes to 14 of the 21 hitters she faced.
The perfect game marked the first seven-inning perfect game in program history and the second perfect game in school history, with the last coming in a five-inning, run-rule win over Prairie View A&M in 2022, tossed by now-sophomore Kaci West.
SFA (5-4) fell behind after a single tally in the first inning and a two-run fourth. The Jacks got a complete-game effort from Brooke Gaino (0-2) in the circle. She allowed nine hits and two walks, striking out two over 108 pitches.
STAT OF THE GAME
Baylor (5-1) won its fifth game in six outings the open the year, using a nine-hit effort offensively that including a 3-for-4 game with a triple from McKenzie Wilson, a two-hit effort from Presleigh Pilon, and the first homer of the year from Sydney Collazos, the third of her career.
The Bears also got hits from Amber Tovan, Shaylon Govan and Taylor Strain. Emily Hott drew a pair of walks.
THE RUNDOWN
The Bears opened the scoring with two hits and a walk in the bottom of the first. Wilson led off with an infield hit and after a knock from Toven and a walk to load the bases from Hott, Govan hung a sacrifice fly to leftfield to allow Wilson to score.
In the fourth, Baylor added a pair for a three-run lead. Collazo pounded a two-out, solo homer over the leftfield fence to give BU a two-run lead. Strain followed with a single up the middle and Wilson tripled off the wall in rightfield, allowing Strain to motor home.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Getterman Classic will return on Saturday, with the Bears hosting Longwood at 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
Baylor Bear Insider
Breezing through the first five innings in record time, Baylor junior pitcher Dariana Orme stopped for just a second and tried to figure out why Friday's home opener against SFA was "flying by really fast."
Taking a quick peek at the Getterman Stadium scoreboard, she saw nothing but a string of zeroes for the visiting Lumberjacks. Mystery solved.
Finishing off the first seven-inning perfect game in program history, Orme (2-1) picked up her career-high 10th strikeout to open the seventh, retired Madison Nguyen on a pop-up to shallow left field and then Mackenzie Bennett on a groundout to short for a 3-0 win over the Lumberjacks (5-4).
"I didn't even realize it was going on until halfway through the seventh inning," said catcher Sydney Collazos. "I was like, 'Wow, nobody's been on base.' But she threw a heck of a game. She was locked in the entire time, the defense was locked in the entire time. Everything came together how it should. It was amazing."
Baylor coach Glenn Moore has had some phenomenal pitchers in his 23 years with Baylor softball, including Whitney Canion, Heather Stearns, Kelsee Selman, Gia Rodoni and Hall of Famers Cristin Vitek and Lisa Ferguson. But none of them threw a perfect game.
"That just tells you how difficult it is to do that, especially in this day and age," said Moore, whose team improved to 5-1. "You had a lot more no-hitters back in the day when the hitters weren't quite as strong as they are today. Offenses are so much stronger and better than 20 years ago. It's more and more unusual to see that in our sport, and that makes it pretty phenomenal."
After missing the fall workouts with a pinched nerve in a rib, Orme was on a limited pitch count in a pair of three-inning starts in last weekend's tournament in Las Vegas, but she got through Friday's game with a total of 81 pitches.
"I feel great, honestly," said Orme, who had only one three-ball count in retiring 21-straight batters in the game. "I think the adrenaline is still kicking in. I think it'll be a big tell later tonight, but I feel so good."
The Bears wasted no time getting on the board, loading the bases in the bottom of the first on singles by McKenzie Wilson and Amber Toven and a four-pitch walk by Emily Hott. Sophomore first baseman Shaylon Govan, a transfer from SFA, gave Baylor the early lead with a first-pitch sacrifice fly to left that scored the speedy Wilson.
Putting together a two-out rally in the fourth, the Bears got an insurance run with a Collazos home run down the left-field line and extended the lead to 3-0 when Taylor Strain singled and scored on Wilson's RBI triple to the gap in right-center field.
Off the bat, Collazos said she wasn't sure if she had hit her third-career home run, especially as she saw Nguyen run to the wall in left.
"I was like, 'Dangit,' because the wind always blows in on this field," she said. "I'm just running, and I hear screaming, so I'm thinking she caught it. And then, the whole team came out, so I just kept running. I know you guys wanted to see me steal some bases, but I had to make it a little easier."
Wilson led Baylor's nine-hit attack with a 3-for-4 day after hitting just .188 with three hits in the Bears' 4-1 run at the UNLV Rebel Kickoff.
"Her timing was just a little off last weekend," Moore said of Wilson, who hit over .400 last season. "I've always said, if you get her out a couple of times, you don't want to face her the next time, because she's usually not going to continue that trend. We saw that today. She moved her contact point up a little bit and started making good, solid contact."
Orme was dominant from start to finish, striking out the side in the third and sixth and throwing just four pitches in a 1-2-3 fourth inning.
"It helps that she throws gas," Collazos said of Orme, who's been clocked at 74 mph. "She attacked those hitters. She wasn't playing around. She attacked those hitters and sat them down pretty quickly."
During the postgame interview, Orme was holding a staff with Exodus 14:15 inscribed on it, which says: "Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground."
"It's going to remind us of all the times that God has brought us over," Orme said. "To be able to reflect on that when I'm in the middle of a game, and I'm like, 'God, how am I going to make it? You've done it for my teammates, you've done it for me. You're going to do it again today.' It's an amazing tool that we get to use to just keep us focused on Christ."
LSU transfer Presleigh Pilon had her second multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-3, to raise her batting average to .388. Through the first six games, the Bears are hitting .404 as a team and have five players hitting over .500.
Arizona transfer Amber Toven has a six-game hitting streak with a .550 batting average and made the defensive play of the game when the shortstop fielded a sharp grounder and threw out Bennett at first base from her knees.
"We have an amazing defense," Orme said. "I think the play that Amber made at the end just shows you where we're headed with this team and the defense that we have. That's what you're looking at: Baylor softball is on the come-up. So, just wait on it."
On Day Two of the Getterman Classic, Baylor will face Longwood (2-4) at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Lacers play SFA (5-4) at 10 a.m., followed by SFA vs. No. 1-ranked Oklahoma (6-0) at 12:30 and OU vs. Army at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday's Baylor-Longwood game will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+, with KCEN sports director Kurtis Quillin and former Baylor standout Kelley Levesque calling the action.
WACO, Texas -- Dariana Orme tossed the first seven-inning perfect game in Baylor softball history, leading the Bears to a 3-0 win over Stephen F. Austin in the home opener of the 2023 season, on a sunny Friday evening at Getterman Stadium.
Orme (2-1) used just 81 pitches over seven complete innings, fanning a career-high 10, to throw the first seven-inning perfect game in program history. A native of Vacaville, Calif., the junior retired all 21 hitters she faced, including striking out the side in the third and sixth innings.
A 2022 All-Big 12 second-team selection, Orme fanned five straight over the second and third innings and only allowed three would-be fair balls reach the outfield. She fired first-pitch strikes to 14 of the 21 hitters she faced.
The perfect game marked the first seven-inning perfect game in program history and the second perfect game in school history, with the last coming in a five-inning, run-rule win over Prairie View A&M in 2022, tossed by now-sophomore Kaci West.
Shutout win ✅
— Baylor Softball (@BaylorSoftball) February 17, 2023
No-hitter ✅
PERFECT GAME ✅
What a start to the home slate!! 😮💨#SicEm pic.twitter.com/4TkfobGPIB
SFA (5-4) fell behind after a single tally in the first inning and a two-run fourth. The Jacks got a complete-game effort from Brooke Gaino (0-2) in the circle. She allowed nine hits and two walks, striking out two over 108 pitches.
STAT OF THE GAME
Baylor (5-1) won its fifth game in six outings the open the year, using a nine-hit effort offensively that including a 3-for-4 game with a triple from McKenzie Wilson, a two-hit effort from Presleigh Pilon, and the first homer of the year from Sydney Collazos, the third of her career.
The Bears also got hits from Amber Tovan, Shaylon Govan and Taylor Strain. Emily Hott drew a pair of walks.
THE RUNDOWN
The Bears opened the scoring with two hits and a walk in the bottom of the first. Wilson led off with an infield hit and after a knock from Toven and a walk to load the bases from Hott, Govan hung a sacrifice fly to leftfield to allow Wilson to score.
In the fourth, Baylor added a pair for a three-run lead. Collazo pounded a two-out, solo homer over the leftfield fence to give BU a two-run lead. Strain followed with a single up the middle and Wilson tripled off the wall in rightfield, allowing Strain to motor home.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Getterman Classic will return on Saturday, with the Bears hosting Longwood at 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
- BaylorBears.com -
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