Top Performances From College Softball April 12-14

Kylie Michael

The senior catcher obliterated her season totals in almost every offensive category week as Fordham picked up five straight A-10 wins, winning at St. Bonaventure twice and closing out the week with a three-game sweep of Saint Louis in the Bronx. She went 11-for-16 while hitting the first three homers of her career, driving in 12 runs as she increased her slugging percentage by over 300 points in the five-game stretch. She had a huge part in helping the Rams hold off a huge rally from the Bilikens on Sunday, hitting a two-run homer and then a clutch two-run double after SLU had trimmed an eight-run lead down to two as Fordham held on for the 10-8 win.

Georgina Corrick

The sophomore righty allowed just one run over 25 total innings to lead USF to a near-upset of No. 11 Florida in Gainesville, Fla. and a sweep of rival UCF in Orlando. A sixth-inning sacrifice fly in the hard-luck 1-0 midweek loss to the Gators was the only run she would allow all week. She won Friday’s game over the Knights nearly single-handedly, tying a USF single-game record with 13 innings pitched as the Bulls eventually won 2-0 in 13 innings. She came back to throw six more scoreless innings in the series finale, pitching the Bulls to a 2-0 victory that pushed them to sole possession of first place in The American.

Rylee Bayless

The senior outfielder racked up double-digit hits in just 12 at-bats as Oklahoma State won its fourth straight Big 12 series with a sweep of Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. Bayless had three doubles, two stolen bases and five runs scored. Her career-best 4-for-4 game on Sunday was the first four-hit game by a Cowgirl since Vanessa Shippy vs USF on Feb. 17, 2018 and brought her batting average during Big 12 play to a team-best .525.

Northwestern

The No. 23 Wildcats sit alone atop the Big Ten after earning a sweep of No. 23 Wisconsin in Evanston, Ill. Freshman ace Danielle Williams had a pair of complete-game wins, allowing 12 hits and five runs in 17 innings of work with 21 strikeouts. Senior first baseman Lily Novak reached base six times, none of them bigger than her third homer of the season, a leadoff solo homer in the bottom of the 10th to secure a 5-4 win in the finale. At 33-7, the Wildcats are off to the best 40-game start in the 18-year tenure of Head Coach Kate Drohan, and their 12-0 record in the Big Ten is the team’s best since starting 14-0 in 2005.

Keely Rochard

The sophomore righty threw a perfect game against a top-25 opponent and backed it up with a one-hit shutout three days later as No. Virginia Tech split with No. 14 James Madison and swept rival Virginia in Blacksburg, Va. Rochard’s 15 up, 15 down performance against the Dukes was the seventh perfect game in school history, but the first to be accomplished against a ranked opponent. After UVA’s Hayley Busby doubled to start game two of the series, Rochard would get the next 21 hitters in order, striking out eight.

Bradie Fillmore

The junior third baseman clubbed four homers and drove in nine runs as Boise State put up double-digit runs in all three games to sweep Utah State in Boise, Idaho. Fillmore went 6-for-9 in the series, while her four dingers matched her season total coming in. Her first multi-homer game as a member of the Broncos to seal the sweep on Sunday came with a facility-record 604 fans in attendance at Dona Larsen Park.

KK Leddy

It was worth the wait for one of the last Division I teams to play at home, as the senior righty tossed her first career no-hitter in North Dakota State home-opening doubleheader sweep of South Dakota State in Fargo, N.D. Leddy walked three and struck out five in the opening 5-0 win, finishing what she came up just short of about a month earlier, as her no-hit bid against Purdue on March 16 was broken up with two outs in the seventh. Freshman righty Paige Vargas then scattered six hits and three walks to record her third shutout of the season in a 1-0 win as NDSU secured the series win.

Oklahoma

The Sooners’ junior trio in the circle stretched their shutout streak to five games as No. 2 Oklahoma outscored Kansas 23-0 in a three-game sweep in Lawrence, Kan. Lefty Giselle “G” Juarez struck out 11 for a complete-game one-hitter in the opening 10-0, six-inning win, then righty Mariah Lopez matched her in game two, fanning eight in the 5-0 triumph. Righty Shannon Saile would then combine with both Juarez and Lopez to allow just three hits in the finale. Freshman first baseman Grace Green led the charge offensively with five hits including three home runs.

Hannah Sipos

The freshman third baseman had a breakout series with seven hits with her first career home run as No. 11 Florida swept Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. Sipos had a career day in the opener, going 3-for-4 and hitting a solo homer for a key insurance run in the fifth just after the Aggies had sliced a seven-run deficit down to two as the Gators held on for the 8-6 win. She then went 2-for-3 in each of the remaining games, recording her first career stolen base in game two and a double in the finale.

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