Recap: Softball shocks No. 1 Oklahoma, 4-3, at Troy Cox Classic
By Meg Kelly, BU Athletic Communications
The upset of college softball season wasn't supposed to happen. With rain washing the opening day away of the Troy Cox Classic on Friday, Feb. 16, teams shuffled their schedules to get games in on Saturday.
Then-No. 1 Oklahoma didn't want the Terriers, they wanted a more "challenging" game.
The Boston University softball team didn't get the memo that they were supposed to be blown away by the Sooners. Instead, they pulled off the biggest upset in program history as the Terriers defeated a top-five ranked team for the first time in program history, 4-3, on that Saturday in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
As the Terriers brace for a rematch tonight in Norman against No. 4 Oklahoma, let them tell the story of how their biggest win in program history unfolded.
THE SET-UP
BU was originally scheduled to take on the Sooners in their final game of the Troy Cox Classic on Saturday, Feb. 17. However, Mother Nature had other plans and Friday's games were washed out, leaving teams to scramble to schedule opponents on a tightened timeline.
Lizzie Annerino (Sophomore): We had the rain delay the day before so they rescheduled games. Oklahoma didn't even want to play us so that kind of got me going, a little bit triggered.
Marina Sylvestri (Freshman): It was a priority for us to play Oklahoma. In order to get better we needed to play the best. When we heard that they didn't want to play us, we understood. We were the underdog in that tournament. We just wanted to compete, and we wanted to compete against the best.
Kaitlin Sahlinger (Senior): The night before the game Coach sent out a message to the team that said, "like this message if you guys want to play against Oklahoma." Within 30 seconds, everyone liked the message because we had been so hyped up for it the whole entire week. Hearing that they didn't want to play against us because they thought it'd be a little bit of a waste definitely had us come in with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. We had something to prove, to at least go in and play a tight game, give it our all and show them that we're a team you actually have to contend with.
SATURDAY, FEB. 17
The Terriers dropped their opening contest of the tournament to Ball State, 6-5. Just 20 minutes after the final pitch, the Terriers would line up for a bout with the top-ranked team in the country.
Marina Sylvestri: Ball State was what it was. At that point it didn't really matter who we were play because we needed for ourselves to come back and play as hard as we could.
Kali Magane (Sophomore): After we played Ball State we pretty quickly moved on and realized who we were playing and moved onto the next game. At the same time, we were like we have nothing to lose going into this so might as well give it our all and do our best.
Madi Killebrew (Junior): We didn't dwell on the loss, it was about focusing on the next game, the next ball, the next pitch.
Jilee Schanda (Senior): All of us knew that it was just another softball game, but we had a lot of fire because they didn't want to play us.
PLAY BALL
After a scoreless opening inning, BU drew first blood in the top of the second as Emily Morrow and Wong each doubled and Sahlinger delivered a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 game.
Emma Wong (Senior): I was just trying to find a pitch that I liked and tried to relax while I was in the box. Coach was encouraging me in the box after every pitch. I fouled off a few pitches so I knew I was on it. Luckily the pitch I swung at brought Emily (Morrow) in so I was just happy to come through for the team.
Kaitlin Sahlinger: I knew that I had to get the ball in play, especially to the right side. I was up there just trying to swing and make something happen. It ended up working out where I hit the ball right back up the middle on a fly and got Emma in.
HOLDING GROUND
The Sooners battled back in the top of the second, putting their two leadoff batters aboard with no outs, as Dolfi was called to the circle.
Cali Dolfi (Freshman): I honestly didn't expect to go in at that exact moment. I was in the bullpen working on my spins, zoning in, and she (coach Waters) calls into the bullpen and I couldn't tell from a distance if she was calling Cali or Ali. I was trying to figure out if am I in or not, and then was like ok, let's go.
Dolfi worked the Terriers out of the jam, but the Sooners got one run back on an error.
Cali Dolfi: It was one of those experiences where I was like I can do this, I'm made to play at this level, it gave me a lot of confidence.
Oklahoma pulled ahead in the bottom of the third and loaded the bases, but Annerino came in to get the final out and stave off the Sooners from doing any further damage. Annerino was aided by the Terriers' defense, which saw the outfield make several spectacular plays to keep it a one-run game.
Kali Magane: They catch 90-95 percent of the balls that are hit to them so we just had to work on keeping it in the park, keeping it somewhere where they could get a hold of one.
Brittany Younan (Senior): The whole season we've tried to stay calm, especially with a young pitching staff. The entire senior class tries to stay lose. We had nothing to lose so we just scrapped the whole time.
Emma Wong: Everything was super positive throughout the entire game. Even if someone got out, everyone was really supportive in cheering on the team.
Jilee Schanda: You always kind of have that belief that you can win. As the game got further along it was like, wow wer'e contending, this is a great game.
Kali Magane: At that point, Lizzie really had control and was able to hold them down, so we knew as long as we got a run, we would get a shot.
THE TURNING POINT
BU took advantage of a pair of Oklahoma errors to plate two more runs, as Morrow crossed home on a throwing error and Sahlinger delivered another sacrifice fly to give the Terriers the lead.
Kaitlin Sahlinger: Once we got ahead, it was like "ok we can really do this." There were a couple innings where they got runners on base, they had two innings where they had bases loaded, and it was a little bit nerve-wracking. Once we got out of those innings, it just proved to us that we had a shot at this and a real chance at winning it.
Marina Sylvestri: It was just keeping that fight within us and not letting anything slip. In Oklahoma being one of the top teams in the country, they're always going to have the ability to come back at any moment. There was no secure spot that was like "we're going to win this game" until the last out.
Jilee Schanda: I don't think that you ever expect you're going to win until the final out is made. A lot of things can happen in this sport and they can happen really quickly. It's never an expectation by any means, but there was absolutely a belief that we could win.
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE
Three outs away from her first collegiate win and finishing off the biggest upset in program history, Annerino took the mound with three outs to go in the bottom of the seventh.
Lizzie Annerino: Once I got the first batter out, I knew it was over from there, we had the mojo on our side.
Down to its final out, Oklahoma had the game-tying run on first, while the potential game-winning run stood at the plate. Annerino induced a ground ball that headed towards Younan at shortstop.
Brittany Younan: They kept hitting it to me. We know that our pitching staff is gong to give us grounders. When watching the replay everyone was like "you tossed the ball and Emily wasn't even there" but we have such good trust. It was a weirdly calm moment in such a hectic game.
Madi Killebrew: Everyone was so excited. We knew we could pull it off and when we actually did it was an amazing feeling.
Kaitlin Sahlinger: Seeing the ball hit the ground, we knew that we had it. Brittany made a great play and tossed it to Emily at second. It was a pretty exciting moment.
Lizzie Annerino: Going in, I didn't know that I didn't have any wins. It was kind of surreal that it was my first collegiate win.
THE AFTERMATH
BU used the momentum of handing Oklahoma its first loss of the season to tear through the Patriot League, where it reeled off a 15-game win streak en route to securing its third Patriot League championship.
Madi Killebrew: After accomplishing that, we knew what we were capable of. Just going off that, building from it, and taking that momentum throughout the season was pretty important.
Cali Dolfi: It was definitely awesome. Against a team like Oklahoma you can't have one pitcher doing it or one person doing it. To be able to utilize all of us against some top names was a really awesome feeling.
Lizzie Annerino: From then one, we felt like we beat Oklahoma, we can beat anyone. It really set the tone for the entire season.
Brittany Younan: In the after game huddle Coach just said how proud she was. We all were talking about how that is what BU softball is, we're the scrappy team that surprises people.
