EDMOND, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech softball team picked a pair of impressive wins against 2023 NCAA tournament participants on Friday in their first day of action in the Raising Cane's Softball Festival, co-hosted by Central Oklahoma and Southern Nazarene.
Both victories were of the shutout variety as the Golden Suns blanked (rv) Missouri Southern, 4-0, in the first game of day and followed that up with a 9-0 win in five innings against No. 11-ranked Central Oklahoma. The win against UCO came on the Bronchos' home field and featured a No-Hitter authored by junior newcomer
Alexis Findley.
MISSOURI SOUTHERN
Against Missouri Southern, the Golden Suns scored their first two runs in the top of the second inning and pushed across both runs without the benefit of a hit.
Lexi Gorniak led off the inning by reaching on fielding error by the Missouri Southern second baseman. Two batters later, Gorniak scored on a throwing error by MSSU in the
Abigail Lochala at-bat.
On the throwing error, Lochala made second and was pinch-ran for by
Belen Sanchez. A flyout in the next at-bat advanced Sanchez to third and that set her up to score on a wild pitch moments later.
That 2-0 lead taken by Tech in the second held until the top of the sixth when the Golden Suns scored a run, again without the benefit of a hit. Gorniak was once again in the center of that score as she hit a one-out double down the left field line. During the next at-bat, Gorniak took third on a wild pitch and then scored on the same play on an errant throw by the Lions' catcher.
The theme of finding a way to score without a hit struck again for Tech in the top of the seventh as they manufactured their fourth run of the game. This time it was
Shelby Chavers hitting a one-out single up the middle that got things going. Following her single, Chavers quickly stole second and then reached first on a single to the pitcher by
Kaylyn Aguirre.
With runners at the corners and one out, Aguirre stole second to keep the Golden Suns out of the double play.
Aidan Gorton was then called upon to pinch-hit and she delivered a sacrifice fly out to right field.
All of that manufactured offense against Missouri Southern was in favor of starting pitcher
Bradi Basler. The junior would go the distance in the game to register her first solo shutout of the season. In 7.0 innings of work, Basler scattered five hits, walked none and struck out five.
CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
In the game with UCO, the Golden Suns wasted no time in getting their offense rolling as they scored a run in two hits in the top of the first inning. The run scored that frame was the result of clutch two-out hitting starting first with a two-out double by
Savannah Snow.
Dani Lindsey followed that up in the next at-bat with a double of her own to trade places with Snow.
An inning later, the Golden Suns had a monster inning with four runs on three hits, while also benefitting from a trio of Broncho errors.
The inning began with
Abigail Lochala reaching on a fielding error by the UCO second baseman. Brookyln Haney then came on to pinch-run for Lochala. Haney was then moved to second on a single up the middle by
Maycie Hardy. Both Haney and Hardy advanced 60-feet in the next at-bat on a successful sacrifice bunt by
Adrianna Cooney.
With two runners in scoring position,
Kaylyn Aguirre cashed in both with a double down the left field line. On her double, Aguirre was able to make third on a fielding error by the UCO left fielder. Not long after that, Aguirre trotted home on a single to right field by
Lexi Gorniak.
The third error of the inning by UCO came in the ensuing at-bat and scored Gorniak all the way from first.
The Golden Suns would not let up from there and scored two runs in the third and one run apiece in the fourth and fifth innings to position themselves for the run-rule victory. The runs in the third scored on a wild pitch and a bases loaded walk while the tallies in the fourth and fifth scored on RBI single by
Shelby Chavers and a throwing error by the UCO pitcher.
While the Tech offense was flexing their muscle,
Alexis Findley was putting in work holding the potent Bronchos' offense to no hits. Through her 5.0 innings of work, Findley worked around four walks and struck out two as she picked up her first win as a Golden Sun.
Her no-hit performance was also the 19
th in program history and the first since
Bailey Buffington's no-hitter against Northwestern Oklahoma in April 2022.
UP NEXT
The Golden Suns will now prepare for two more important in-region games on Saturday as they play Fort Hays State at 1 p.m. and (rv) Washburn at 6 p.m.
