Kansas Softball Finishes Fall Season Perfect, Downs Avila 8-0
Oct. 15, 2012
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Two doubles and a solo shot from senior first baseman Mariah Montgomery powered Kansas softball to an 8-0 win against Avila to close out the Jayhawks undefeated fall season, Monday night at Arrocha Ballpark.
Montgomery set the tone with a 3-for-3 night, including a solo home run to center field to lead off the bottom of the third. She finished the night with three runs scored and two RBIs. Fellow senior Maggie Hull also posted a multi-hit night, going 2-for-3 with a double and run scored.
The Jayhawks finished the fall a perfect 7-0, all seven wins by run rule as the KU offense scored 68 runs while the pitching staff surrendered just one.
“It was a good fall,” head coach Megan Smith said. “The reason we play a fall season is to figure out what we need to work on from now until January to get ready for our first games in February. I think our young players have stepped up and done in extremely well. We’ve seen them grow a lot in the seven fall games they played. We saw a lot of good things out of our upper classmen, too. I see the team meshing really well, working really hard and bringing a lot of energy to the field. Now we go to work on the things that need work.”
Sophomore starter Alicia Pille threw four shutout innings to earn the win, striking out eight, walking none and allowing two hits. Senior Morgan Druhan took over for the top of the fifth for a 1-2-3 inning before the Jayhawks closed out the run rule in the bottom half of the inning to end the game.
Hull kicked off the offense with a double to leadoff the home half of the first. A double from sophomore catcher Maddie Stein brought her home to scratch the first run across just three batters in. Montgomery and freshman second baseman Alex Hugo drew back-to-back walks and later came home on a two-run infield error as the Jayhawks took a 3-0 lead out of the first inning.
Montgomery’s line drive over the center field wall to leadoff the third put the next run on the board. A well-executed squeeze bunt from junior centerfielder Elsa Moyer knocked in senior right fielder Rosie Hull to extend the lead, 5-0. Freshman shortstop Chaley Brickey walked with the bases loaded for the final RBI of the inning.
Another leadoff extra-base hit for Montgomery, a double in the bottom of the fourth, led to run from a Chanin Naudin groundout.
Needing one more run for the five-inning run rule, Brickey drilled a double off the left field wall to start the bottom of the fifth. One out later, Montgomery came through again with her second double of the game, driving in Brickey and ending the game, 8-0.
