Baylor Softball Sweeps UCF in Sunday Doubleheader

WACO, Texas – Baylor Softball swept UCF in its Saturday doubleheader at Getterman Stadium, defeating the Knights 1-0 in both games.

The Bears (25-18, 8-13 Big 12) recorded their first conference-series sweep of the season, as RyLee Crandall and Aliyah Binford tossed back-to-back complete-game shutouts.

THE RUNDOWN

Crandall shut down the Knights’ offense in game one of the doubleheader, throwing only 15 pitches with 14 of them strikes in the first inning, while striking out two batters.

In the bottom half of the first, Emily Hott singled to lead off the game before Presleigh Pilon reached on a fielder’s choice and two other Bears drew walks to load the bases.

After not capitalizing in the first inning, Baylor re-loaded the bases in the bottom of the second and scored the game's only run. Kaci West kicked things off with a five-pitch walk before advancing to second on a wild pitch and scoring after a bunt single from Taylor Strain and a UCF throwing error. Hott and Pilon then reached to load the bases, but back-to-back flyouts ended the threat.

UCF loaded the bases in the top of the third, but Crandall and the Baylor defense were able to keep the Knights off the board.

A couple of hits and walks through the next three innings put runners on for the Bears, but they weren’t able to bring any more runs home.

After Crandall retired six-straight Knights, UCF threatened by loading the bases in the top of the seventh, but an unassisted groundout to third base kept the Kights off the board to give Baylor the 1-0 game-one victory.

Binford was in the circle for game two, effectively retiring the first 14 batters by turning a double play in the top of the third before giving up just the second hit of the ballgame in the top of the fifth.

Baylor got runners on in the first and second innings but left three stranded through three complete innings.

Scoreless going into the fourth inning, Binford singled and stole second for the second time in the game to put herself in scoring position before heading to third on a groundout, but the Bears weren’t able to push her across.

Baylor was finally able to capitalize in the bottom of the fifth inning after Zadie LaValley singled to lead off the inning. Following the single, Strain walked to move pinch-runner Caroline Rowatt to second before a single from Pilon through the right side brought home the Bears' only run of the game.

Binford worked around a pair of singles in the sixth before shutting UCF down in order in the seventh to take the game two win.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Bears pick up their first conference sweep of the season
• Emily Hott and Taylor Strain each recorded multiple hits in game one
• BU out-hit UCF 7-5 in game one
• Strain recorded the only extra-base hit of the day, a double
• RyLee Crandall pitched the complete-game shutout, striking out four
• Crandall improves to 12-7 on the season
• Aliyah Binford had two hits in game two with two stolen bases
• Binford pitched the complete-game shutout in game two, striking out nine and not walking a single batter
• She led the Bears this week with a 0.50 ERA, 13 strikeouts and only one earned run
• Presleigh Pilon recorded the Bears’ only RBI of the day
• Baylor is now 9-2 all-time against the Knights

QUOTABLE

Head coach Glenn Moore on getting the sweep …

“Where we've been and knowing how well they've been playing, it's huge, mainly for our confidence. I haven't seen a kid give up on this team yet, but at some point, you start worrying about that, especially when the balls don't fall. I think it was two evenly matched teams, and for us to go head-to-head and take advantage of the home field advantage, momentum of the crowd, to see it work out in our favor. Of course, knowing what kind of work we have to do to be rewarded at the end of this took a big chunk out of it and gave us momentum moving forward.”

Aliyah Binford on the pitching this weekend …

“I think that was really great for both of us. Honestly, for our pitching staff as a whole, just being able to see that, yeah, we’ve been put through the ringer constantly pitching, but being able to pull a sweep out like that is just amazing to see.”

UP NEXT

The Bears will head on the road to face Utah in a nonconference matchup on Wednesday, April 24, in Salt Lake City before continuing down the road to face BYU in Provo, Thursday-Saturday, April 25-27.