Box Score

EUGENE, Oregon - No. 17/21 Baylor softball (44-12, 1-0) opened NCAA tournament play in the Eugene Regional with a 3-2 walk-off win over Long Beach State (32-21, 0-1) on Friday evening at Jane Sanders Stadium.

The Baylor pitching depth split the game, with Kendall Potts taking the start, Gia Rodoni working in middle relief, and Heather Stearns (20-6) picking up the win to close out the game.

For the Baylor offense, a quick start grabbed an early lead in the bottom of the first.

A lead-off single to center field for Jessie Scroggins got the ball rolling, moved to second by a hit-by-pitch from Baylor's career HBP-leader, Sarah Smith.

The program's career doubles leader followed in similar fashion, with Linsey Hays roping a double to right-center, scoring Scroggins.

Lindsey Cargill capped off the big inning for the Lady Bears, drilling a single back up the middle to score Smith, giving BU a 2-0 lead.

From there, it was lock-step for the two teams, with neither side able to crack through until the top of the fifth, when LBSU broke onto the scoreboard with an RBI sac-fly.

A walk and a pair of singles in the top of the sixth would tie the ball game at 2-2, with the score staying even through to the bottom of the seventh.

Back to the top of the order in the home half of the seventh, Scroggins led off the frame.

With a 2-2 count, Scroggins drilled a high fastball well into the stands in straight-away center field, giving the Lady Bears the 3-2 walk-off win in the crucial first game of the NCAA Eugene Regional.

STAT OF THE DAY #1
6 - the number of walk-off victories for Baylor this season, including the season opener over McNeese State, the series opener with UCF, game two against Texas, a pair of walk-off wins over Kansas, and Friday's win over Long Beach State.

STAT OF THE DAY #2
20 - the season win total for Heather Stearns, one away from matching her 2015 win mark (21).

STAT OF THE DAY #3
3-for-4 - the batting performance for Jessie Scroggins, complementing the walk-off home run with a triple and two runs, just a double shy of hitting for the cycle.

WHAT'S NEXT
The Lady Bears await the winner of No. 5 Oregon/Fordham, facing the victor on Saturday, May 21 at 2:00 p.m. PT/4:00 p.m. CT.

#SicEm

Baylor Softball Recap
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

EUGENE, Ore. - Getting a "good pitch to hit," Baylor sophomore Jessie Scroggins drilled a 2-2 pitch deep into the stands in dead center field for a 3-2 walk-off win over Long Beach State in Friday night's opening game of the NCAA Eugene Regional.

The dramatic ending was the Lady Bears' sixth walk-off win of the season and kept them in the winners' bracket of the four-team double-elimination tournament at Oregon's Jane Sanders Stadium. Baylor (44-12), which extended its winning streak to 11 in a row, faces the top-seeded and fifth-ranked Ducks (45-8) at 4 p.m. CDT Saturday.

"It looked like a rise coming in, and I was able to get my hands on top of it," said Scroggins, who hit her sixth home run of the season. "I had a feeling it was either going to be a home run or a double." Baylor coach Glenn Moore had no doubts. "I knew it was gone," he said.

"Obviously, we're happy to come out on top of a hard-fought ballgame," Moore said. "We had a lot of respect for Long Beach State. They're a great club, been here many times, of course. We knew we were going to have to play a tough ballgame. We've been off for so long, I think it was evident. . . . We missed a couple signals, had a couple base-running mistakes and probably a couple coaching mistakes out there. We've just got to tighten the ship a little bit."

The way the game started, it looked like the Lady Bears were going to blow out the third-seeded 49ers (32-21).

After Baylor starter Kendall Potts worked around a pair of singles in the top of the first, the Lady Bears struck first with a leadoff single by Scroggins and Linsey Hays' RBI double to the gap in right-center field. Lindsey Cargill drove in another run with a two-out single up the middle, but Christine Clermont (22-11) struck out Robin Landrith to leave the bases loaded.

Clermont struggled with her control, walking five and hitting two batters. But she also induced five infield pop-ups and tossed five scoreless frames to give the 49ers a chance to get back in the game.

"I think we were a little less aggressive than I'd like to have been, and we were also out of the zone," Moore said. "We weren't disciplined in the zone. You've got to adjust to the umpire's strike zone, whatever it may be, and I think we swung at more pitcher's pitches tonight than we should have rather than just staying in the strike zone with the umpire."

Potts got through the first four innings unscathed. But she gave up a run in the fifth on a single, an error and Tiera Falo's sac fly to left before freshman Gia Rodoni came out of the bullpen to strike out Julia Lombardi looking on a fastball on the outside corner.

"One thing we know about Gia is she's going to go after hitters, she's not going to work around them," Moore said.

The Lady Bears had a chance to answer in the bottom of the frame, when Scroggins led off with a triple that hit the chalk down the right-field line. Long Beach State coach Kim Sowder protested the call by first base umpire Brandon Bluhm, who apparently got turned around and initially pointed that the ball was foul.

But the triple was wasted when Scroggins got tagged out trying to get back to third on a fielder's choice grounder by Sarah Smith.

Sandwiched around a pair of strikeouts, Rodoni gave up a walk and single to put the tying and go-ahead runners on base with two outs in the sixth. Heather Stearns appeared to record an inning-ending strikeout on the first batter she faced, but third base umpire Ron Burkhart ruled a check swing before Alley Perkins came through with an RBI single down the left-field line that plated the tying run.

"I wouldn't say it was a mistake, I think she just got a good hit," Stearns said.

Pitching for the first time in 19 days, Stearns (20-6) struck out the side in the top of the seventh, setting the stage for Scroggins' game-winning blast.

"You certainly would love to blow open the game," Moore said. "But to script it the perfect way to prepare your team for the rest of the tournament, I think it happened the way we would want it to. . . . Being able to use three pitchers and come out with a victory and give Heather an opportunity to pitch in this stadium and close it out was a positive. I'm just happy we were able to pull out a `W.'''

Oregon run-ruled Fordham, 8-0, in five innings in the nightcap and was able to save senior ace Cheridan Hawkins for Saturday's matchup against the Lady Bears.