SB Nation • 11 min read

Border War Takeaways: Fall Softball Edition

We’re back!!! It’s officially Fall Ball season — technically, they’ve already had one contest against MO State last weekend, but we were not on hand for that — and on Saturday, the Tigers welcomed that team

from the west (kansas) to town for a 10-inning affair.

For those of you who followed along last year, Fall Ball is wild. There are wholesale changes in the field seemingly every inning and no announcement of who they are, so Dylan I were left to try and figure it all out. We did our best. Here’s our takeaways.

Pitching

Marissa McCann got the start and pitched two innings. In the first, she had a hit by pitch and three strikeouts and in the second allowed some soft contact, but her fielders kept off the basepaths. M&M abused the top half of the zone, making the batters look silly.
CC Harrison entered in the second and — remember, it’s FALL BALL — and got knocked around a bit. She allowed pretty hard contact, with five hits being attributed to her, as well as a run. However, she did calm down towards the end of her stint.
Freshman phenom Abby Carr entered in the fifth inning and notched a couple of strikeouts. She had good swing-and-miss action and prevented hard contact in her 1.2 innings of work.
Nathalie Touchet entered for Carr and had a rough first inning with a couple of walks before settling in in her second inning of work with a strikeout and several plays made on softly hit balls in the infield.
Rylee Michalak (pronounced Mihallik) came in in the eighth and allowed a hit, but other than that, no troubles.
Courtney Donahue entered in the ninth and allowed a leadoff hit but that was all for that frame. In the tenth, she allowed a one out walk and another baserunner (how she got on, no idea). A hit to CF scored a run to make it 3-2 and put a runners on second and third with two outs. A flyout to deep right ended the Jayhawks’ threat.
The pitching staff overall allowed 11 Jayhawk hits and four runs. Not great, though I really don’t know much (or anything) about this kU team.

Hitting

…Crickets…. to start, anyways. Through five innings, the Tigers had no hits, though they did have a few baserunners. The balls they hit were very weak contact, and nothing to the outfield. Of those five innings, the first one was the most productive. Leadoff Claire Cahalan reached on a walk but was thrown out trying to steal. Abruscato reached on an error and took an extra base, but the pinch runner, Adi Koller, got no further than second base.
The team was patient at the plate, drawing plenty of walks and long at-bats.
In the bottom of the fifth, Madison Uptegrove singled — YAY! A HIT! — but she got called out trying to take second. Hill struck out, but absolutely booked it down to first and arrived safely. Abby Carr made good contact, sending a pitch out to the RF warning track, but it was caught.
The offense re-emerged in the bottom of the sixth as Kayley Lenger reached on a walk and Adi Koller’s sac bunt advanced her to second. A bloop single that dropped along the left field line from Danielle Blackstun allowed Lenger to take third, before another bloop single, this one by Tiny Claire to CF, dropped in to tie it up 1-1. Abruscato then walked to load the bases, but Uptegrove’s hard hit ball went to the second baseman, who caught it before it could hit the ground.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Tigers tacked on another run after a Saniyah Hill walk, Avery Adcock fielder’s choice and Lenger HBP loaded the bases for Neveah Watkins, who singled home Hill before Lenger was thrown out at home after the fact.
In the bottom of the eighth, Haidyn Sokoloski and freshman Addy Waits walked before Abruscato unless a hard hit double to right field that scored Soko to make it 3-1.
In the bottom of the tenth, Sokoloski led off with a grounder up the middle and then took third on Watkins’ sac fly. She easily scored on Sophie Smith’s single to right center, making it 4-1.

Odds & Ends

Abby Carr showed off her versatility in the circle and offensively, making solid contact, including the Tigers’ hardest hit ball of the game in the bottom of the fifth that went to the RF warning track. It was caught, but she definitely could be a weapon. In the circle, she struck out two (as of T6).
Baserunning was iffy, as several players were thrown out due from botched steals, failing to get back to a base, or for trying to take an extra base.
Madison Uptegrove had what I would consider a nice game. She had a really great play at short one innining and looked good at the plate, but was the victim of fielders being in her way when she hit.
For now anyway, this appears to be a small ball type of team. Aside from Carr and Uptegrove’s aforementioned hard hit balls, the others were more softly hit balls that just kinda dropped in. They also got on base via walk and a sac bunt. Like I said, small ball.
There were several fielding errors on the left side, which is not surprising with the hard contact and younger infielders. This will need to be managed.
Stefania Abruscato had a big game, catching all 10 innings while at the plate reaching on an error, working a walk, and hitting an RBI double.
Freshmen Addy Waits and Avery Adcock both looked pretty solid in the field at third and shortstop, respectively.
The starters on the field were McCann (P), Carr (1B), S. Smith (2B), Uptegrove (SS), Hill (3B), Abruscato (C), Blackstun (RF), Lenger (CF) and Sokoloski (LF).
Abby Hay remains out after sustaining some sort of injury in the weight room. She was not dressed out.
New Tigers who made an appearance included both transfers, Michalak and Jackson, as well as a slew of freshmen— Carr, Waits, Adcock, Avery Porter and Linny Ramsey. It’s possible others came in too, but I know for sure these did.
I did not see freshmen Sidney Forrester or Jaley James in this game.