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Dakota Kennedy Leads Arkansas Back to Softball Super Regionals

Kennedy delivered twice in one weekend as Razorbacks run-ruled way to what is becoming a habit for Courtney Defel's teams.
Andy Hodges|
Arkanas Razorbacks Dakota Kennedy scores in game against Central Arkansas.
Arkanas Razorbacks Dakota Kennedy scores in game against Central Arkansas. | Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

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Arkansas Razorbacks

Courtney Deifel's Arkansas softball program has made a habit of this.

Win the regional. Move on. Do it again next year.

Sunday at Bogle Park was just the latest chapter in that story, as the Razorbacks rolled past South Florida 10-2 in six innings to claim the Fayetteville Regional championship and book another trip to the Super Regionals.

The final score tells the story well.

Arkansas finishes the regional weekend at 45-11 and didn't need seven innings in any of its three games.

The Razorbacks run-ruled both South Florida and Fordham earlier in the weekend before finishing off the Bulls again Sunday.

Three games. Three early endings. That's the kind of weekend that is showing what Deifel has built in Fayetteville.

Now the goal is to take the next step past the Super Regional. It's probably a sore subject for some, but it's the facts.

The Hogs will host the winner between Arizona and Duke next week at Bogle Park when the Super Regionals kick off net weekend.

Kennedy Does It Again

If one player captured the weekend's spirit, it was Dakota Kennedy.

The AUSL Draft selection walked off Fordham with a two-run home run Friday and then delivered a two-RBI double Sunday that shut the door for good.

She found a way to be the one who called a game over, twice in the same regional weekend.

Kennedy wasn't alone in producing.

The 9-hole hitter, Kennedy Miller, went 3 for 3 and launched a three-run home run in the second inning that handed Arkansas a lead it never gave back.

Karlie Davison added two hits and two doubles in a 2-for-3 afternoon that kept the lineup churning.

The Razorbacks put up four runs in the second and four more in the fourth, making the math easy on their pitching staff.

South Florida scored first in the top of the second, but Atalyia Rijo's RBI double helped Arkansas answer immediately.

By the time Miller's three-run shot cleared the fence, the Hogs had already flipped the game on its head.

Timmerman Takes Over in Circle

Freshman Saylor Timmerman owned the circle in relief. She threw three no-hit scoreless innings, struck out four batters and didn't walk a single one.

For a freshman to deliver that kind of performance on a regional Sunday shows exactly what the Razorbacks have developing in their pitching pipeline.

That's a consistent theme under Deifel getting young players stepping into big moments and handling them with sharp execution.

It's not luck. It reflects what has made Arkansas a program opposing teams don't want to see on an NCAA Tournament bracket.

Bain Stays Historic

Brinli Bain is having a freshman season worth watching closely. She went a perfect 3-for-3 Sunday, got her 18th double of the year and scored a run.

Doing that in a regional championship game, as a freshman, on a program that routinely advances deep into the postseason says plenty about where Arkansas is headed.

The Hogs didn't get here by accident. Deifel's teams make the NCAA Tournament. They host regionals. They reach Super Regionals.

They've turned Bogle Park into a place opponents have to earn the right to visit and then survive once they arrive.

Some other teams are about to find that out first-hand.

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Andy Hodges
ANDY HODGES

Sports columnist, writer, former radio host and television host who has been expressing an opinion on sports in the media for over four decades. He has been at numerous media stops in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.

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