Baylor
40-17
Southern Illinois
36-19
No. 18 SB Defeats Southern Illinois, 13-9
5/20/2023 10:08:00 PM | Softball
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Hitless for the day, Shaylon Govan delivered a bases-clearing triple to right field in the ninth inning as 18th-ranked Baylor softball pulled out a 13-9 win over the Southern Illinois Salukis in Saturday's elimination game in the NCAA Salt Lake City Regional.
The Bears (40-17) play Ole Miss (31-27) in another elimination game Saturday night, with a chance to get back to Sunday's 1 p.m. CT region championship game against No. 15 national seed Utah (39-13).
In a wild game that took just over four hours, Baylor had a six-run explosion in the fifth inning to take a 9-2 lead. But the Salukis (36-20) battled back to make it a two-run game with a five-run sixth inning and then tied it up at 9-9 on a two-out, two-strike RBI single by Elizabeth Warwick in the seventh.
After a scoreless eighth, sophomore Ashlyn Wachtendorf started a two-out rally in the top of the ninth with an infield single up the middle. McKenzie Wilson followed with a double to left and Presleigh Pilon walked to load the bases.
Govan, looking for her first hit of the day and just her second of the regional, belted a ball that got by the diving rightfielder and into the corner to score all three runs and give the Bears a 12-9 lead. Sydney Collazos then reached on an infield single to short that scored pinch-runner Dariana Orme for the final run.
Freshman RyLee Crandall (16-5), who allowed just three earned runs in 7.1 innings to pick up the win, worked around a one-out single to close it out when Warwick lined out to third base to end the game.
Wachtendorf, making her first-career start, and Amber Toven both went 3-for-4 to lead Baylor's 14-hit attack. Wilson and Collazos both had two-hit days.
This was BU's first NCAA regional win since Gia Rodoni threw a no-hitter to beat McNeese State, 6-0, in the College Station Regional in 2018.
Ole Miss, which handed the Bears a 3-0 loss in Friday's opening game, fell into the loser's bracket with a 7-1 loss to Utah in Saturday's first game at Dumke Family Stadium.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Crandall, RyLee (16-5)
L: M. Eberle (19-10)
Batting:
2B: Wilson, McKenzie 1 ; Watson, Ana 1 ; Toven, Amber 1
3B: Govan, Shaylon 1
RBI: Wilson, McKenzie 1 ; Pilon, Presleigh 1 ; Govan, Shaylon 3 ; Collazos, Sydney 1 ; Toven, Amber 3 ; Wachtendorf, Ashlyn 1
SH: Watson, Ana 1 ; Wachtendorf, Ashlyn 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wilson, McKenzie 2 ; Pilon, Presleigh 2 ; Govan, Shaylon 1 ; Orme, Dariana 1 ; Collazos, Sydney 1 ; Watson, Ana 1 ; Toven, Amber 1 ; LaValley, Zadie 1 ; Rowatt, Caroline 1 ; Wachtendorf, Ashlyn 2
CS: Toven, Amber 1
HBP: Pilon, Presleigh 1 ; Toven, Amber 1
Batting:
2B: E. Warwick 1 ; R. Hamilton 1 ; E. Austin 1
3B: A. Carder 1
RBI: E. Warwick 2 ; J. Lis 2 ; R. Hamilton 3 ; A. Carder 1
SF: R. Hamilton 1
Base Running:
RUNS: E. Warwick 2 ; J. Lis 1 ; R. Hamilton 1 ; E. Austin 1 ; B. Caylor 1 ; A. DePron 3
