Arkansas will find out its NCAA Softball Tournament path on Sunday night

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

After a disappointing time at the SEC softball tournament, Arkansas will now await the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 to find out its next game.

The Razorbacks (36-16, 14-10) are projected by College Sports Madness’ Bracketology to be a No. 13 seed and host a regional next weekend and all 13 SEC softball programs to be in the field.

Fifth-seed Missouri finished off a 3-1 quarterfinal win over fourth-seeded Arkansas on Friday morning in game that was originally slated to begin Thursday at 1. p.m., finally begin at 8:05 and was suspended at 9:24 due to weather.

“My comment is Missouri earned that win,” Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel said. “I feet like our energy today with the split was a lot better, but we didn’t do enough to win.”

Missouri (42-14, 13-9) added a run on double steal as play resumed in the fifth inning on Friday morning to go up 3-1.

Arkansas had its shot in the bottom of the sixth when Nia Carter and Cylie Halvorson sandwiched singles around Bri Ellis being hit by a hit to load the bases with no outs.

The Tigers turned to relief pitcher Marisa McCann, who got Hannah Gammill to pop out, Kennedy Miller to strike out and pinch hitter Ruin Hedgecock to fan as well.

Kennedy narrowly missed a grand slam on a drive down the left field line.

“It’s a game of inches so if Kennedy’s ball is five inches or a foot to the right, that’s the game,” Deifel said. “It’s just fighting to put some pressure on them to make some plays.

“Some times it work out for you, some times it doesn’t. It didn’t work out this time.”

Deifel was asked how tough it was to wait out the weather.

“I think the situation is not ideal by any means, but both teams are in the same situation,” Deifel said. “It was a chance to reset. Quite frankly, I thought we looked terrible last night.

“I do feel like we responded today, but we didn’t give ourselves much time in finding a way to get it done. It’s not ideal, but that’s softball. It’s an outdoor sport and it’s dealing with weather and things that are out of your control.”

Deifel admitted that playing Friday morning was not optimal.

“It was a quick turnaround,” Deifel said. “You get home late and by the time you wind down and shut it down, it’s time to wake up again. But we are both in that situation so it is not ideal for either.

“I thought we responded well and circled back, but I just think we couldn’t outplay, couldn’t recover from the mistakes we made last night. That doesn’t so up in the stat line. It shows up and nine hits and no errors, but there was probably four plays we needed to make.

“And we should have been coming into a 1-0 game with runners at first and third and one out. So we shout our own foot. We are a great defensive team and that is not typically what we do, but it was too much for us.”

Arkansas had tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth on Thursday night when Hannah Gammill finished off a nine-pitch at bat with a solo home run.

“I think I was just really focused on staying on top of the ball,” Gammill said of her 12th blast this season. “She was throwing a rise ball that was out of the zone. I think I just felt really free and wanted to hit a line drive and it ended up going out.”

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Arkansas was well represented on the coaches’ All-SEC selections announced on Friday.

First baseman Ellis, sophomore center fielder Reagan Johnson and fifth-year senior pitcher Morgan Leinstock were tabbed First-Team All-SEC.

Senior second baseman Cylie Halvorson was named Second-Team All-SEC for the second consecutive year.
Gammill was selected to the SEC’s All-Defensive Team along with Ellis.

Photo by John D. James