Walks Doom Cal in NCAA Regional Softball Loss

A disastrous, walk-filled inning doomed Cal in the Bears’ 5-4 loss to Southern Illinois on Friday in the opening game of the Baton Rouge, La., Regional of the NCAA Softball tournament.

Cal (36-18) now must win four straight games to win the double-elimination, four-team regional. On Saturday morning, the Bears will face Jackson State, which lost to host LSU 5-0. Then, if Cal wins that game, it would have to win another game Saturday afternoon to advance to Sunday, where Cal would have to win two more games to advance to the Super Regional.

The Bears put themselves in that position because they yielded five runs on just one hit – a single – in the top of the second inning against Southern Illinois, the Missouri Valley champion, which improved its record to 43-9.

Haylei Archer was the starting pitcher for Cal, and she clearly had trouble gripping the ball in the hot, 93% humidity on Friday. In the second inning she yielded a leadoff single, then hit the next batter and walked the following batter, allowing a run to score on a wild pitch.

She was replaced at that point by Ryann Orange, who walked all three batters she faced, forcing in two more runs, before be replaced by Randi Roelling, the third Cal pitcher of the inning. She yielded two sacrifice flies that gave the Salukis a 5-0 lead.

Five consecutive Southern Illinois plate appearances in that inning resulted in a hit by pitch, walk, walk, walk, walk.

Southern Illinois did not score again off Roelling, who pitched the final six innings without giving up a run. But the five runs were enough for Salukis pitcher Maddia Groff, who entered the game with a 29-3 record and an 0.81 ERA, which was second-best in the country.

Hope Alley belted a two-run homer in Cal’s three-run rally in the bottom of the second inning, but Cal did not score again until Mika Lee’s RBI single in the sixth inning made it a 5-4 game. However, that inning ended with two runners on base when Lee left second base too early on a pitch, resulting in the third out of the inning.

Cal got a two-out runner in the bottom of the seventh on Tatum Anzaldo’s single, but Tianna Bell struck out to end the game.

Cal outhit the Salukis 8-5, but the eight walks issued by Cal pitchers proved decisive.

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