TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Wisconsin women's softball team split its action during the second day of the Kajikawa Classic at Farrington Stadium on Saturday.
"It's always good to get the first win of the season," Wisconsin head coach
Yvette Healy said. "Coming off of yesterday, we were just focusing on improving and getting a split today is better than getting swept."
Freshman
Annie Davis recorded the first win of her collegiate career against the Virginia Cavaliers, but the Badgers (1-3) fell to 1-3 on the season.
"To see our freshman pitcher Annie (Davis) come out and get a win over another BCS school like Virginia is exciting and for her to do it with a shutout is always rare in the sport of softball," Healy said. "To do it against a BCS school makes the season more exciting with Annie (Davis) being a hometown Arizona kid."
After going scoreless in the first inning, Wisconsin turned up the heat with a run in the bottom of the second inning. Senior
Maria Van Abel got things started for the Badgers by registering UW's first hit of the game with a single to third base. In true fashion, she stole second base only seconds later.
Ashley Van Zeeland singled on a bunt to first base and advanced Van Abel to third, then
Katie Christner hit a sacrifice bunt to bring Van Abel home for the first run of the game.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Van Abel sparked yet another streak for the Badgers. After Van Abel singled off of a bunt, Van Zeeland followed with a single to third base and advanced to second on the throw. With two runners at second and third, the Cavalier pitcher intentionally walked Christner.
The bases were loaded and
Macy Oswald was intentionally walked. Then came
Chloe Miller. Miller blasted a rocket down the right field side for a triple and drove in three RBI to put the Badgers up 5-0.
Van Abel led the Badgers after going 3-for-3 with stolen bases. Wisconsin stole five bases while Virginia did not have any stolen bases.
"It was fun to see the kids on the base paths," Healy added. "I know a lot of people have really worked on their speed, endurance, fitness, sliding and approach. It's great to see it pay off a little bit."
UW had eight hits on the Cavaliers and five RBI. The Badgers were led by Miller, who logged three hits in the contest.
Davis recorded her first win with seven innings pitched and five strikeouts. She only allowed four hits in her shutout victory.
The Badgers went straight back into action against an undefeated Oregon State team (4-0). Wisconsin only had four hits against OSU.
Taylor-Paige Stewart pitched six innings and struck out two batters. She allowed 10 hits and five runs.
Oregon State's Beverly Miller struck out seven Badger batters and only allowed four hits in her first victory of the season.
The two pitchers were neck-and-neck early on, as both teams went scoreless in the first three innings.
The Badgers couldn't overcome a powerful rally from the Beavers, however, in the bottom of the fourth inning.
OSU's Hannah Akamine singled to left field and was followed with a double from Sammi Noland. With the Beavers' next hit, a single from Mikela
Manewa, the Beavers drove in two RBI and another double from Ya Garcia finished the inning with three totals runs giving the Beavers a 3-0 advantage.
They scored again twice more in the sixth inning off of a wild pitch from Stewart and a sacrifice fly.
"There are things to grow on and we saw some improvements which is the thing to focus on in this time of the year," Healy said.
Wisconsin is back in action Sunday against No. 2 Oregon at 12 p.m. (CT). The Badgers last faced the Ducks on May 18, 2014, when top-ranked Oregon ended Wisconsin's NCAA tournament regional run in an all too familiar shutout loss. The Ducks also knocked the Badgers out of the NCAA tournament the year prior in Eugene, Oregon.
