Husky softball rallies with 7 runs in 7th inning to advance to Super Regional
Decades from now, Husky fans will probably still be talking about what happened Sunday afternoon at Husky Softball Stadium.
They will talk about how the Huskies, seemingly dead, scored seven runs in the seventh inning of a winner-take-all regional final — after not scoring a run in the previous 13 innings that day — to win 7-6 over McNeese State and advance to the Super Regional.
Twice, Washington was down to its final strike, but no matter.
Sami Reynolds tied the score with a bases-loaded double on a 1-2 count. Madison Huskey drove in Reynolds for the go-ahead run.
Brooke Nelson retired McNeese in the bottom of the seventh inning, and the Huskies, the No. 7 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, celebrated perhaps their most improbable victory in program history.
Washington, which lost 1-0 in Sunday’s opener to McNeese, will host unseeded Louisiana in a Super Regional this week.
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“We could have just caved but there was a greater spirit ahead of this team,” said Washington coach Heather Tarr.
EPIC COMEBACK BY WASHINGTON‼️
Down 6-0, the Huskies score SEVEN in the final inning to advance to the Super Regionals! pic.twitter.com/qiJVfP7TR8 — ESPN (@espn) May 22, 2023
The UW coach said considering the stakes, it was the biggest comeback in program history. According to ESPN, since 2000, teams that have trailed by six or more runs in NCAA tournament games were 5-903. No team had ever come back from six runs down in the last inning.
Until Sunday, that is.
Washington (41-13) will open play against Louisiana on Friday at 7 p.m. in the best-of-three series that will have a berth in the Women’s College World Series at stake. The Ragin’ Cajuns (50-14) upset No. 15 seed LSU twice on Sunday to get to the Super Regional.
The Huskies had several chances to score in the first game, but came up empty. In the second game, they were dominated for six innings by Ashley Vallejo, who through six innings had allowed just two hits and just one base runner after the first inning.
Washington had done nothing to that point against her to give any indication that such a comeback was possible. But the Huskies did not lose faith.
“There’s just so many zeros that got up there … but once this thing gets unstuck, watch out,” Tarr said.
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Watch out, indeed.
Madison Huskey opened the seventh inning with a single, the Jadelyn Allchin drove her home with a double.
SilentRain Espinoza singled, sending Allchin to third. Rylee Holtorf hit a sacrifice fly to make it 6-2. Kelley Lynch followed with a single to center, and another run scored when the center fielder let the ball get by for an error.
Pinch-hitter Alana Johnson walked to bring the tying run to the plate, but Megan Vandegrift hit into a fielder’s choice for the second out. UW’s top hitter Baylee Klinger was down to her last strike when she hit a grounder to shortstop.
Instead of throwing to first base, Reyna Reese tossed the ball to second base. But Vandegrift beat the throw, loading the bases.
That brought up fifth-year senior Reynolds, who fell behind in the count 0-2.
“Coach Tara looked at me and I looked at her, and she’s like, get your at-bat back,’ ” Reynolds said. “So that kind of whipped me back into shape.”
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Reynolds took a ball, then figured the next pitch would be on the outside part of the plate.
“I was like I’m going to hit it as far and as hard as I can,” she said.
The left-handed hitter crushed the ball into the left-center gap, and it skipped all the way to the wall, allowing all three runners to tie the score.
Reynolds said she got teary at second base after the hit. McNeese relieved Vallejo and brought in Whitney Tate, who shut out the Huskies in the first game.
Huskey greeted Tate with her second hit of the inning, a double to center field that gave the Huskies a 7-6 lead.
Nelson, who relieved ace Ruby Meylan in the fifth inning, closed out McNeese in the seventh inning after allowing a leadoff single.
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“I just want to say how proud I am of Brooke Nelson,” Tarr said. “She’s been waiting her turn to make a big impact. … We said in the middle of this year that someone like you is going to do something big for us and you might not have felt like you’ve done anything yet, but bigger things are coming.”
McNeese (47-16) had not allowed a run in 23 innings going into the fateful seventh inning, including back-to-back 1-0 shutouts of Minnesota and Washington to get to the winner-take-all game.
Then came an inning like nothing McNeese coach James Landreneau said he had ever experienced.
“It’s definitely a hollow feeling,” said Landreneau, whose team was 2-2 against UW this year.
Tarr likes to show UW players video from the Huskies’ 13-12 win over Utah in 2017 after they had trailed 12-1. But she said she is deleting that tape, and Sunday’s comeback will be what future Huskies watch.
“When you’re on your deathbed and you don’t want to go home, it’s pretty special to see what a group like this can come through with,” Tarr said.
Source: The Seattle Times