Feb. 24, 2001
The 14th-ranked University of Notre Dame softball team (7-0) won its second game of the 2001 Morning News Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., by edging host Arkansas 4-3. Originally scheduled as a double-header, inclement weather forced a change in the tournament format this weekend. The Irish will face Maine in the night cap at 10 p.m. on Saturday, then face Arkansas (7-6) again on Sunday (Feb. 25) at 11 a.m.
The Morning News Invitational schedule has been turned upside down this weekend due to a series of storm systems that moved through the Fayetteville area late Friday and early Saturday. After a torrential downpour at approximately 2 p.m., the Lady’Back Yard grounds crew did an outstanding job to get the field in playing shape and resume play at 5 p.m.
The Irish and the Lady Razorbacks waged a back-and-forth battle throughout the early evening hours. Jen Sharron (Agoura Hills, Calif.) took the mound for the Irish once again and produced a solid effort. Scattering eight Arkansas hits over seven innings, she would allow just one earned run in the contest.
The Lady Razorbacks got on the board first in the third inning after slap-hitter Tiffany Johnson posted her first of two doubles in the game over Danny Klayman’s (San Diego, Calif.) outstretched glove in centerfield. Lauren Hendrix then singled to move Johnson to third and she would eventually score on Sharron’s first wild pitch of the season.
Arkansas’ Heather Schlichtman kept the Notre Dame lineup in check until the bottom of the fifth inning. Klayman reached on a bunt single with one out, but Andria Bledsoe (Higley, Ariz.) lined out sharply for the second out of the inning. Alexis Madrid (Temecula, Calif.) followed with an infield single that moved Klayman to second base.
Notre Dame’s leadoff hitter, Jenny Kriech (Indianapolis, Ind.) stepped into the batters box and promptly singled up the middle, scoring Klayman for the first Irish run of the game.
Sharron’s spot was due up next for the Irish, but Nicole deFau (Southington, Conn.) had taken her previous two at-bats as the designated player. The Irish coaching staff decided to let their starting pitcher hit with the game on the line and she delivered.
Schlichtman quickly got ahead in the count 0-2, but then sailed a straight pitch right down the plate that Sharron quickly deposited far over the centerfield wall (listed at 220 yards) and into a very stiff breeze. It was Sharron’s third career round-tripper and her first of the season.
Arkansas would not go away quietly after Sharron’s titanic home run. They scored two runs on a throwing error in the top of the sixth inning to close the Irish lead to just a single run.
Freshman Kristin Schmidt (Houston, Texas), who was ready and warmed up to pitch the Notre Dame-Maine matchup set for the next game of the tournament, pitched an uneventful seventh inning for her first career save.
GAME NOTES:
After the weather broke to allow play to resume in the Morning News Invitational, a strong northwesterly wind was blowing directly into home plate throughout the game … that wind did not affect Sharron’s three-run blast, as she hit the ball directly into the teeth of the breeze … Melanie Alkire notched her third double of the season in the fifth inning … Sharron is now 5-0 in 2001 with a 0.42 ERA … Notre Dame extends its best-ever opening season record (7-0) … Jarrah Myers posted her first stolen base of the season in the fourth inning.