Sports editor Jaralynn Tammi Morellano says Maci Cole hit a home run that ensured TU’s victory.
The University of Tulsa’s softball team hosted its home opener last Tuesday against South Dakota State at the Collins Family Softball Complex. Its win was driven by senior Maci Cole, her stellar day at the plate and a three-run home run catapulting the Golden Hurricane to victory. Maura Moore played a big role as well, the pitcher putting in five innings of work without letting a single walk. With these two players working hard for Tulsa, it is not surprising the Golden Hurricane trumped the Jackrabbits 9-3 to take the win.
SDSU did outhit the Golden Hurricane 9-7, however, both teams committed errors that led to a run. Both teams would strike out twice in this contest. Tulsa’s second strike out would be pitched by Alexa Hopkins who came in for two innings of relief for Moore. Tulsa would leave six on base compared to the five from SDSU. Cole had three hits, two singles on top of her home run. Matching her hit stats, the senior would also score three times. Claira Skaggs had her own great performance, driving two runs on two hits, both of which were doubles.
In the first inning, SDSU would get a pair of hits and this lead would be the only one it had throughout the entirety of this contest. A single from SDSU’s Akayla Barnard would score Abby Gentry to put the Jackrabbits up one. Once it was Tulsa’s turn at the plate, the team did not take long to tie the game.
The Golden Hurricane’s first point arose with no hits. Cole would draw a walk and was sacrificed to second by Faith Russell. She was able to move to third off a groundout to a pitcher and was in a good position for Skaggs. The third baseman would hit it to the shortstop who would drop the ball and allow Cole to escape and get the tying run. The first inning would end in 1-1 tie between the teams.
Tulsa would hold down the Jackrabbits in the top of the second. SDSU would not be able to make another run until the sixth inning. In contrast, the Golden Hurricane would be very active in the second inning, scoring three runs to take the lead 4-1.
Tulsa continued to hammer down at the Jackrabbits, the home team completing another three runs in the fifth inning. The scoring was kicked off by Cole, the senior hitting a single to get to first. Russel would follow and put both of them into scoring position. Annika Dill would ground out, scoring Cole. Following this, Skaggs would smash another double to score Russel. Skaggs would also score a run after Aliyah Scarborough would hit a single up the middle.
SDSU would get a pair in the top of the sixth, however, Tulsa was able to keep its cool and shut down the Jackrabbits before the inning could go on any longer. The Golden Hurricane would earn two runs of its own in the bottom of the inning, scoring Russel and Dill.
The Golden Hurricane would hold the Jackrabbits to zero runs in the final frame, ending the game with a 7-3 win. This lifted Tulsa to 7-8 on the season as the Jackrabbits fell 5-8. This week also saw Tulsa hold the Hurricane Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
The Golden Hurricane swept the first day of the Hurricane Classic winning over Kansas City 6-5 and Drake 4-2. It split the second day losing to the Bulldogs 2-7 in the morning and beating it 2-1 in the afternoon. After that, it went to Oklahoma State in Stillwater. Its next competition will be this Friday, March 7, against Memphis at the Collins Family Softball Complex. This will be a multi-game contest with games scheduled Friday through Saturday.
