Oregon State
Tulsa
Oregon State Delivers Knockout Blow To Tulsa In NCAA Regional
May 19, 2012 | Softball
May 19, 2012
Note: Scroll to bottom for postgame press conference video.
NORMAN, Okla. - With its backs up against the wall and needing a win to keep its championship aspirations alive, the Oregon State softball team delivered another thrilling performance on Saturday afternoon, eliminating Tulsa, 2-1, behind another lockdown effort in the circle by Marina Demore.
The Beavers (36-22) dispatched Lehigh earlier in the day, 9-2, and now advance to face host Oklahoma (47-8), the national No. 4 seed, to determine the winner of the Norman Regional in a televised game on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. CT/11 a.m. PT. The Sooners, undefeated so far this postseason after beating both Lehigh and Tulsa in the last two days, only need one more win to advance. With a 2-1 record this weekend, Oregon State needs to defeat Oklahoma twice tomorrow if it wants to continue its season.
On Saturday, Demore continued her recent streak of dominance on the rubber. She pitched six innings, allowing only one run on five hits while striking out three. Beginning with her complete-game shutout of No. 16 Arizona last weekend, the junior has gone 3-1 with a 2.21 ERA in her last five appearances, striking out 18 in 25 1/3 innings of work.
Against Tulsa on Saturday, Demore was staked to an early two-run lead that she made stand for the entirety of the game. In the top of the first, Dani Gilmore led off with a single and scored when Hannah Bouska roped a double to left field to put OSU up 1-0. Bouska moved to third on a passed ball and eventually came home on a two-out RBI single off the bat of Lea Cavestany. Those two runs would be all the Beavers needed to send Tulsa packing.
The Golden Hurricane's Shelby Blanton hit a single up the middle with one out in the second, but after that Demore would set down the next nine Tulsa batters in order. Jessica Stoelke broke up the streak with a double in the fifth and her team put runners on second and third in that inning before the Beaver right-hander calmly induced a ground ball to Ya Garcia at second base to end the threat.
Tulsa got on the board with a sixth-inning solo home run from Skylar Swanson and looked like it was poised to crush the Beavers' dreams in the bottom of the seventh. Blanton led off with a double to force an Oregon State pitching change and Paige Hall came on in the circle, but walked the first batter she faced to set up a situation that would fluster even the most seasoned veterans.
But Hall's nerves are steelier than most and she emphatically slammed the door shut on Tulsa, retiring the next three hitters on just nine pitches to seal the victory, 2-1. It was her sixth save of the season, tying an Oregon State single-season record, extending her own Pac-12 lead and moving her into a tie for sixth nationally.
Oregon State's two runs against Tulsa give the team 301 on the season, making this year's squad the first to cross the 300-run threshold in school history.
The Beavers' game against Oklahoma tomorrow at 1 p.m. CT/11 a.m. PT will be broadcast on Fox Sports Oklahoma Plus, which can be seen nationally on DirecTV channel 679, on Dish Network channels 445 and 9515 HD and U-Verse channels 754 and 1754 HD. It will also be available via a free live webcast like Oregon State's other games in the tournament at this link.
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