Softball Season In Review
6/14/2017 3:28:00 PM | Softball
The University of Tulsa Softball Team finished their 2017 campaign with a 41-17 (15-3 The American) mark as they qualified for their ninth NCAA Regionals appearance under Head Coach John Bargfeldt. The Hurricane won both the regular season and tournament titles in the American Athletic Conference while winning 30 games for the 16th consecutive season dating back to 2002.
Tulsa rattled off a pair of double-digit win streaks during the season, jumpstarting their first streak with an 8-0 (5) win over #25 Arkansas at the Collins Family Softball Complex before going unbeaten the following weekend at the Rock Chalk Challenge that included a win over #12 and College World Series participant LSU. TU's second and season-longest 11-game winning streak began with a 10-inning win over conference second-place finisher Houston in one of Tulsa's four league sweeps, lasting from April 13 to May 6.
The streaks helped Tulsa climb into the top-25 polls, coming in at #23 in both the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll and ESPN.com/USA Softball Poll after the conference tournament concluded.
Junior pitcher Emily Watson had a record-breaking season for the Hurricane while picking up multiple honors of her own, being named The American Pitcher of the Year while earning first-team honors along with being named the pitcher of the week in the league eight times and the Louisville Slugger/NFCA Co-Pitcher of the Week once. Watson's campaign broke multiple single-season pitching marks at Tulsa, including shutouts with a nation-leading 14 in a record 246.2 innings pitched with the most starts and most complete games.
Senior Maggie Withee joined Watson on The American First-Team for the third time in her career after leading Tulsa in batting average and hits while committing just one error at third base all season. Haley Meinen earned her first all-conference nod as she was picked to the second-team as a pitcher and utility after holding opponents in league play to zero runs. The Hurricane staff earned the Staff of the Year honor in the conference.
For the second straight conference tournament, Tulsa shutout their opponents while allowing no opposing runner past second base en route to their sixth title of its kind after defeating Memphis and Houston.
Tulsa made their way to the NCAA Norman Regional for the second consecutive season and for the sixth time in their ninth appearance on May 19-22. The Hurricane opened play with a Meinen walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Arkansas 5-4 before taking down North Dakota State 2-1 in their final at-bat to move to the regional title game with no losses for the first time in program history. Tulsa looked for their first birth in the Super Regionals as they took on 10-seeded Oklahoma in the title game, allowing four runs in the bottom of the 10th inning in a 6-4 loss before falling in the winner-take-all game to the eventual national champion, 3-0.
Players Mentioned
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Softball | Tulsa vs UMKC
Friday, February 28
SB | South Dakota State Postgame
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Softball | Tulsa vs South Dakota State
Tuesday, February 25