EDMOND, Okla. – It was a dramatic opening round win for the Augustana softball team at the NCAA Central Regional in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Ashley Mickschl slid across home plate to give AU the walk-off 3-2 victory as
Olivia Hazelbaker made enough contact on the ball to push Mickschl home and send Southern Arkansas into the bottom of the bracket.
Augustana now plays Friday at noon against the winner of Minnesota State and Central Oklahoma.
The Vikings, 45-6 on the season, struck first for a 1-0 lead in the third inning. With
Kendall Cornick standing on second base thanks to a single up the middle and a sacrifice bunt from
Gracey Brink,
Torri Chute hit a single up the middle scoring Cornick.
The 1-0 lead would hold until the top of the seventh inning when Sarah Evans hit a home run into center field to give Southern Arkansas (28-9) a brief 2-1 lead.
Leading off the bottom of the seventh,
Mary Pardo did what she has done all year, hit home runs. She launched her 20
th four-base hit of the season to knot the score back up at 2-2 and sent the game into the extra frame.
Aside from a leadoff walk, the Muleriders went down in order to bring the Vikings back to the plate.
Mickschl, who earned her 25
th win of the season in the circle, did it on the offensive end with a single and advanced to third on an error. That is when Augustana head coach
Gretta Melsted pinch-hit with Hazelbaker. She promptly struck the ball towards the shortstop. As Mickschl was taking off at contact, she had a lane to slide on the backside of the plate and touched it for the game-winning run.
"I was just thinking about barreling up the ball and saw a good inside pitch to barrel up," Mickschl said of the at-bat. "I heard Coach T (
Kelsey Thompson) screaming at me and I looked over and I got on my horse and get going.
"(With Olivia batting) I got a good read on it and I saw the catcher come out in front of home plate, so I decided to slide behind. My teammates had my back that whole time and it was great."
Mickschl pitched all eight innings, giving up just two hits and two runs while striking out six.
The Vikings tallied seven hits throughout the game with three off the bat of Chute and two from Cornick. The two other hits came from Pardo's home run and Mickschl's eighth-inning single which turned into the winning run.
Augustana, seeded No. 1 in the Central Region, now awaits the winner of the second seed Minnesota State and No. 3-seeded Central Oklahoma for Friday's noon contest. The winner on Friday advances to the Region Championship on Saturday, also scheduled for a noon first pitch.
--GoAugie.com--
