Saturday, February 15
Tucson, Ariz.
1 p.m.
Long Beach State University
4-4
5
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4
Oklahoma
6-1
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6
7
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H
E
Oklahoma
0
0
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4
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2
Long Beach State
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1
Photo by: John Fajardo
Long Beach State Stuns No. 2 Oklahoma With Four-Run Walkoff Comeback
2/15/2020 9:49:00 PM | Softball
The Beach also dropped Northern Iowa in an unbeaten day.
TUCSON, Ariz. – A thrilling two-out rally to stun No. 2 Oklahoma was the highlight of Long Beach State's second day at the Hillenbrand Invitational.
Sara Olson's solo home run in the second inning gave Long Beach State (5-4) an early lead over Oklahoma (6-1) in the first game of the day. Kellie White was outstanding again, finishing another complete game and striking out three and threw four scoreless innings against the Sooners to keep the score 1-0.
Oklahoma finally broke through the fifth. A fly ball in the outfield got past a diving Rylie Seip for a triple, and then Lynnsie Elam reached on a dropped third strike to put runners on the corners for Grace Lyons. White made her only real mistake of the day and Lyons punished it, a three-run homer that put Oklahoma on top. White was able to get out of the inning, though and also worked a scoreless sixth.
A leadoff single from Elam would help Oklahoma tack on run more, as the catcher was pushed over to second and scored on an RBI double from Eliyah Flores to get the Sooners a 4-1 lead.
That's when the magic started. Olson led off the inning with her third hit of the day, and Kyra Snyder followed with a single up the middle to put two on. Shannon Saile picked up two outs, but LBSU brought up the top of the order. Sydney McCollum walked to load the bases, and Hernandez followed with another walk to make it 4-2. Abby Lockman reached on an error by Lyons at short with the runners moving on two outs, and then Alyssa Gonzalez delivered a two-run double to right field to walk off the No. 2 team in the country.
The second game of the day was a wild back and forth affair with scoring early and often, but the Beach came out on the right side as well in a 8-7 win over Northern Iowa (4-6).
The Beach struck first in the top of the first as Abby Lockman hit her second home run of the season, a solo shot to put LBSU on top 1-0.
A leadoff triple from Northern Iowa got the Panthers rolling in the bottom half as UNI took the lead. After a walk put two on, a single from Ashley Chesser tied the game, and then a double by Adara Opiola put UNI on top 3-1.
Long Beach State answered with four runs in the top of the second. Starting the inning with singles from Maddy Ruffin and Kyra Snyder to score a run for the speedy Rufffin, an RBI triple from Sydney McCollum kept the inning rolling and singles from Naomi Hernandez and Lockman put the Beach in front 5-3.
Lone runs from UNI in the bottom of the second and third tied the game, but Morgan Quinlan worked a scoreless fourth, and exited in line for the win after the Beach again took the lead in the top of the fifth.
Ruffin and Snyder again combined to put two runners, and after a hit batter loaded the bases, McCollum delivered again, a two-run single to give the Beach the lead for good. In the sixth, Lockman drew a leadoff walk, and came around to score later in the inning on a fielding error by UNI third baseman Opiola, an insurance run that would prove to be critical.
Ashley Coleman, who worked around trouble in the fifth and sixth innings finally got touched for a run, as pinch hitter Cheyenne Andersen hit a two-run home run to bring the Panthers within a run in the bottom of the seventh. Coleman was able to get a groundout and strikeout from the next two batters to close out the save, her first of the season.
Long Beach State will finish off their second tournament with another game against the hosts, No. 4 Arizona, on Sunday starting at 11:30 a.m.
Sara Olson's solo home run in the second inning gave Long Beach State (5-4) an early lead over Oklahoma (6-1) in the first game of the day. Kellie White was outstanding again, finishing another complete game and striking out three and threw four scoreless innings against the Sooners to keep the score 1-0.
Oklahoma finally broke through the fifth. A fly ball in the outfield got past a diving Rylie Seip for a triple, and then Lynnsie Elam reached on a dropped third strike to put runners on the corners for Grace Lyons. White made her only real mistake of the day and Lyons punished it, a three-run homer that put Oklahoma on top. White was able to get out of the inning, though and also worked a scoreless sixth.
A leadoff single from Elam would help Oklahoma tack on run more, as the catcher was pushed over to second and scored on an RBI double from Eliyah Flores to get the Sooners a 4-1 lead.
That's when the magic started. Olson led off the inning with her third hit of the day, and Kyra Snyder followed with a single up the middle to put two on. Shannon Saile picked up two outs, but LBSU brought up the top of the order. Sydney McCollum walked to load the bases, and Hernandez followed with another walk to make it 4-2. Abby Lockman reached on an error by Lyons at short with the runners moving on two outs, and then Alyssa Gonzalez delivered a two-run double to right field to walk off the No. 2 team in the country.
WALK OFF UPSET!!! ??
Long Beach State stuns No. 2 Oklahoma with four runs in the bottom of the seventh!#NCAASoftball | ?? @LBSUSoftball pic.twitter.com/OosBoR7QkP
— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) February 16, 2020
The second game of the day was a wild back and forth affair with scoring early and often, but the Beach came out on the right side as well in a 8-7 win over Northern Iowa (4-6).
The Beach struck first in the top of the first as Abby Lockman hit her second home run of the season, a solo shot to put LBSU on top 1-0.
A leadoff triple from Northern Iowa got the Panthers rolling in the bottom half as UNI took the lead. After a walk put two on, a single from Ashley Chesser tied the game, and then a double by Adara Opiola put UNI on top 3-1.
Long Beach State answered with four runs in the top of the second. Starting the inning with singles from Maddy Ruffin and Kyra Snyder to score a run for the speedy Rufffin, an RBI triple from Sydney McCollum kept the inning rolling and singles from Naomi Hernandez and Lockman put the Beach in front 5-3.
Lone runs from UNI in the bottom of the second and third tied the game, but Morgan Quinlan worked a scoreless fourth, and exited in line for the win after the Beach again took the lead in the top of the fifth.
Ruffin and Snyder again combined to put two runners, and after a hit batter loaded the bases, McCollum delivered again, a two-run single to give the Beach the lead for good. In the sixth, Lockman drew a leadoff walk, and came around to score later in the inning on a fielding error by UNI third baseman Opiola, an insurance run that would prove to be critical.
Ashley Coleman, who worked around trouble in the fifth and sixth innings finally got touched for a run, as pinch hitter Cheyenne Andersen hit a two-run home run to bring the Panthers within a run in the bottom of the seventh. Coleman was able to get a groundout and strikeout from the next two batters to close out the save, her first of the season.
Long Beach State will finish off their second tournament with another game against the hosts, No. 4 Arizona, on Sunday starting at 11:30 a.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: White, Kellie (3-2)
L: Saile, Shannon (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Flores, Eliyah 1
3B: Green, Grace 1
HR: Lyons, Grace 1
RBI: Lyons, Grace 3 ; Flores, Eliyah 1
SH: Flores, Eliyah 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Green, Grace 1 ; Elam, Lynnsie 2 ; Lyons, Grace 1
SB: Elam, Lynnsie 1
Batting:
2B: Gonzalez, Alyssa 1
HR: Olson, Sara 1
RBI: Hernandez, Naomi 1 ; Gonzalez, Alyssa 2 ; Olson, Sara 1
Base Running:
RUNS: McCollum, Sydney 1 ; Hernandez, Naomi 1 ; Olson, Sara 2 ; Snyder, Kyra 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
2
H
3
RBI
1
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
2
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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OF
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OF
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