Fans that attended the opener of the Fayetteville Super Regional at Bogle Park were spectacular, and Arkansas Softball rewarded them with a victory.
Behind a strong offensive push in the later innings, the Razorbacks claim game one of the best-of-three Super Regional with Texas, beating the Longhorns, 7-1.
The Razorback defense got out of a jam in the top half of the 5th inning, which swung much-needed momentum towards the Arkansas bats. The Razorbacks were able to grab three runs.
After allowing two hits and an intentional walk in the inning, [autotag]Chenise Delce[/autotag] became locked in a battle with Texas power-hitter Bella Dayton, which ultimately ended in a ground out to [autotag]Audrie LaValley[/autotag] at 2nd base, keeping the Longhorns off of the scoreboard.
That was the play that Arkansas needed to get going offensively. The bats finally struck gold in the bottom half of the inning, as Arkansas left a total of seven runners stranded on base without a run to show for it through the first four innings. That changed with [autotag]Hannah Gammill[/autotag] stepped in the batter’s box.
After [autotag]Hannah McEwen[/autotag] reached on a leadoff double, and [autotag]Danielle Gibson[/autotag] was intentionally walked, Gammill hit a bloop single over the head of Texas’ Alyssa Washington to score McEwen to give Arkansas the 1-0 lead.
[autotag]Linnie Malkin[/autotag] kept the streak going by hitting a single to center field to load the bases for [autotag]Kacie Hoffman[/autotag]. Hoffman hit a ground ball to 2nd base, which looked to set up a routine out with a throw home. However, the throw was wide, which allowed Gibson and Gammill to score to extend the Razorbacks’ lead to 3-0.
The Razorbacks added four insurance runs in the 6th inning. Gammill grabbed her second RBI of the day by scoring McEwen on a single, and she later scored on a single by Malkin.
History repeated itself in the inning, as Hoffman would again hit a ground ball in the infield, which turned into a Texas error. The wide throw to 1st base from Texas’ Mia Scott allowed two more runs to score, pushing Arkansas’ lead to 7-0.
Texas scored their first and only run in the bottom of the 7th inning. With the bases loaded, Texas’ Mia Scott hit a grounder to 2nd base, which Arkansas used to get the out at 2nd, allowing the run from 3rd base to score. Bella Dayton flew out to McEwen in the next at-bat to close the game.
Arkansas was led offensively by Hannah Gammill’s three-hit, two-RBI night. Hannah McEwen also had three hits in the game while Linnie Malkin and former Longhorn [autotag]Taylor Ellsworth[/autotag] picked up multiple hits.
In a complete game performance, Chenise Delce struck out six Longhorns while allowing six hits and walking one batter.
Game two of the Super Regionals is set for 5:30 p.m. CDT on Friday at Bogle Park. The game can be seen on ESPN2. An Arkansas win will send them to Oklahoma City for the program’s first-ever trip to the Women’s College World Series.
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