By Joe Pratt | Broadcast Reporter
Baylor Softball continued its home run with a three-game series against the enemy of the Iowa State University conference. The series featured a 1-0 victory for the Bears, followed by a pair of 6-1 defeats.
The opening of the series on Friday featured a duel between low-scoring pitchers. Dariana Orme, a two-year-old student, made the seven complete frames, shooting a closing performance while giving up four shots. Iowa State’s Saya Swain and Ellie Spelhaug threw four and two innings, respectively. The Cyclones duo gave up six shots combined with a single round belonging to Spelhaug. Orme spoke after the game about the low-scoring business.
“For me, I know the type of team I play with and I know that as long as I can keep going out there and we can get a zero on the board, they will come and run on the board. table for me “, said Orme. “I trust them, I know they will. Sometimes it takes a little longer, but I know they will do it at the end of the day. So it’s a little easier to work with that. ”
The only round of the game came at the top of the sixth half. Second-placed catcher Sydney Collazos made it easy on the left, scoring second outfielder Ana Waston on the second.
“It was great, we finally got some consecutive shots, because we have a lot of people on this list who hit the ball hard, they just didn’t click with their backs, so it was huge. Collazos said. “It was great, I felt good about being me and being productive for my team.”
It was Baylor’s 11th block of the season, but the Bears barely squeezed in with a 1-0 victory. Head coach Glenn Moore reflected on the timely shot and the excellent launch of the team.
“We couldn’t make him fall at the right time,” Moore said. “It simply came to our notice then. Dariana [Orme], of course, was very effective. I don’t know when he fired less than a hundred shots … I had some good bats, I just couldn’t make them fall. Aliyah [Binford] hits a strong one, McKenzie [Wilson] starts the game by smoking one on the wall that is outside any other park. We just can’t push them, but we’re done. All I needed was one because of our defense and because of Dari, and we did it at the right time. ”
Game two was another quiet game for the first six innings. Baylor put one in the third, and the Cyclones answered in the fourth with one of their own. But in the seventh, Iowa State collected five rounds to bring them to a 6-1 victory.
Binford was in the circle for everything except the two outings, while he tried to put the Bears to ensure his victory in the series. The second student held the Cyclones only one shot and one round in the first two halves. Then he allowed four more shots in the seventh after two errors, which totaled up to five rounds.
“Aliyah threw a great game again,” Moore said. “Our pitchers are synchronized, but we can’t score points. I played a good defense, but I didn’t get late in the game today. We played some good defensive games at first, but [ISU] did the same. They are really two close teams. ”
A single round of Baylor came from a simple Wilson on the right, who brought Watson home after he was hit by the field and stole the second. Wilson, in his second season, won his second game with several hits this weekend and was the only Bear to record an RBI on Saturday.
“When you have a pitcher like Aliyah [Binford] who works hardest to put zeros on the scoreboard for the opposing team, it is our duty to push them off the offensive line so that they can throw at least more comfortably.” said Wilson. . “The frustrating part is that we played six rounds of hardball. Unfortunately, the game of softball is seven rounds, so we have to play all seven rounds hard. As you can probably see, I didn’t get too many breaks today, either offensively; I hit the ball hard, I didn’t find many holes, they played games. And then, for the defensive side, [when] Aliyah launches a great game like this, the defense has to support it. ”
ISU ran away with a series victory on Sunday afternoon, with another 6-1 victory over the Bears. The Cyclones finally reached Dariana Orme of Baylor in the first round against the ace in the fourth half. Orme went six and a third and was taken out with two remaining outs after giving up six runs on eleven hits. She threw 117 pitches in the series final and now holds a record 12-12 a year.
Offensively, the Bears scratched just one run across the board, with two total hits, both hit out