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No. 13/14 Baylor Softball Pulls Away Late Over North Texas

WACO, Texas – No. 13/14 Baylor softball (18-4) rallied in the bottom of the sixth to come away with a 2-0 win over North Texas (12-15) on Tuesday evening at Getterman Stadium.

Gia Rodoni (11-3) was untouchable for the Lady Bears in the circle, throwing the complete game shutout. She worked 7.0 innings, allowing just two hits, striking out 10, and walking none.

Although the Baylor offense was able to chip out a handful of hits throughout the contest, it wasn’t until the home half of the sixth inning that the Lady Bears were able to break through to put runs on the board.

Carlee Wallace worked a five-pitch, one-out walk, with Alyssa Avalos coming on to pinch run at first.

A dropped pop out in foul territory for Taylor Ellis gave the Lady Bears a lucky break, leading into a double to left for Ellis that put two in scoring position with one out.

Maddison Kettler put the Lady Bears on the board, slicing a sac fly deep enough into right center to allow Avalos to score and move Ellis to third.

Caitlin Charlton added an insurance run with an RBI single into left, scoring Ellis to push the lead to 2-0.

The Mean Green scratched out a baserunner on a two-out infield error by the Lady Bears, but Rodoni collected her 10th strikeout for the third out to finish off the shutout win.

TOP QUOTES

"That's another thing we worked on a lot in practice this week is just executing, getting runners on base and trying not to do too much with it. Just really trying to execute and move the runner, to be able to score that run. When we were finally able to get that run in the last inning, that was huge for us and we were all excited." – Baylor sophomore shortstop Taylor Ellis, on not panicking and rallying late

“Yeah, I think it does. I just write something on my wrist each game and tonight I wrote ‘WIN.’ Winning each pitch, winning each batter, winning each inning. So, I think that's also what kept me locked in, just staying with everything and not letting it get out of hand. And looking to the seventh inning to score.” – Baylor junior pitcher Gia Rodoni, on if a tight game helps her stay locked in and focused

“This is becoming the most difficult place for us to win. I guess this is a good year for it since we never play here. Gia was good, her changeup was on. It’s a funny game. On paper we thought we would face maybe a better offense but have a little more offense than we had. It just flip-flopped. We struggled with offense and Gia was on her game and they had very little. But she held on and we got some good defensive plays that gave us a chance to get going late. We hit some balls hard in this game. We did some things well. The difference in Texas State was we scored early and we couldn’t get a run across in this game. Not a ton of offense in either game, but the good thing is we held on defensively and with our pitching today.” – Baylor head coach Glenn Moore, on Gia Rodoni’s performance

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Gia Rodoni worked her fourth shutout of the season, already matching her year-end total from 2017 and taking her career total up to eight.
  • Rodoni moved into triple digit strikeouts for the second-straight season, taking her season strikeout total up to 106.
  • Rodoni’s 10 strikeouts marks her fourth double-digit strikeout effort of the season and the fifth in her career.
  • Baylor snapped a three-year streak of upset victories by the scrappy North Texas club, with the Lady Bears winning the only matchup between the teams in the 2018 season.
  • Taylor Ellis (2-for-3) picked up her sixth multi-hit game of the season, the 11th of her collegiate career.
  • Caitlin Charlton (2-for-3, RBI) recorded her second multi-hit game of the season and the 12th of her collegiate career.
  • Maddison Kettler (GW RBI) recorded her first sacrifice fly of the season and the second in her collegiate career.
  • Nicky Dawson extended her hitting streak to five, setting a new career-high mark.

WHAT’S NEXT

Baylor closes out its final nonconference weekend, trekking to Baton Rouge, La., to take part in the LSU Round Robin, running March 23-25 and featuring matchups with North Dakota State, BYU, and LSU.

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