By Matthew Soderberg | Sports Writer
Baylor softball claimed the victory in the Getterman Classic Sunday afternoon with an 8-3 win over Prairie View A&M. Six Lady Bears were named to the All-Tournament team after the game.
Redshirt senior righty Gia Rodoni got the start for Baylor and pitched 4.2 innings of three-run ball with six strikeouts, but those three runs all came unearned. She was relieved by redshirt junior righty Sidney Holman-Mansell, who struck out three while giving up one baserunner in her 2.1 innings on the mound.
With two aces on the mound in the championship game, Baylor started the scoring early with three runs in the first inning. Senior first baseman Goose McGlaun stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and launched a sac fly into center field to bring home redshirt senior outfielder Kyla Walker.
Senior catcher Taylor Ellis grounded out to first base to score redshirt junior Madison Kettler, and freshman utility player Emily Hott singled to short to drive in sophomore outfielder Josie Bower for the final run of the inning. The freshman said after the game that the early scoring sent a message to the other team.
“It showed that we were coming here to play,” Hott said. “We weren’t just going to sit around and just kind of let them hang around with us. We were ready to get out and get the lead.”
Sophomore third baseman Lou Gilbert followed up the three-run first with an RBI single into left field in the third inning, and junior outfielder Alyssa Avalos scored on an error by the Panthers to take a 5-0 lead going into the fifth. Prairie View scored three unearned runs in the top of the inning to come within striking distance, but Holman-Mansell shot down any hopes of tying up the ball game with a near-perfect end to the game.
The Lady Bears regained their five-run lead in the bottom of the sixth with RBIs from Hott, Gilbert and sophomore infielder Casey Shell. A three up-three down top of the seventh from Holman-Mansell sent the Panthers packing. Gilbert said after the game that this homestand is a better feeling than they had last season.
“It’s a better taste in the mouth than we had all last year,” Gilbert said. “So we’re super excited and pumped for the rest of this season.”
Baylor finished 3-2 in the Getterman Classic last season, placing third in their own tournament after losing two games to UT Arlington. Head coach Glenn Moore said hopes are higher this season with the results from the past two weekends.
“It was nice to get the title back here and take control of things,” Moore said. “It wasn’t always pretty this weekend, though we certainly did what we had to do when we had to do it and got to see a lot of players.”
Senior second Nicky Dawson, Rodoni, Walker, Gilbert, Bower and Hott were all named to the All-Tournament team after Sunday’s game. Hott, the only freshman representing the Lady Bears, said it was an honor to stand up with girls she idolized before coming to Baylor.
“A lot of these girls I looked up to playing, got to see them play in the World Series,” Hott said. “It’s just great to stand by them and have such a supportive team.”
Baylor (8-2) will get a chance at revenge over UT Arlington at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Getterman Stadium in the Strikeout Breast Cancer game. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ through the ESPN app.
