Fresno State quickly faces elimination game in NCAA Softball Tournament
Fresno State faces a do-or-die showdown Saturday afternoon in the NCAA Seattle Regional.
Senior right-hander Megan Betsa, the national leader in strikeouts, fanned 13 while pitching a one-hitter and No. 20 Michigan had a two-run response in the bottom of the fifth to the Bulldogs’ only scoring rally as the Wolverines beat Fresno State 3-1 on Day 1 of the regional Friday.
The Bulldogs at 4:30 p.m. will face Montana, an 8-0 loser in five innings to No. 7 Washington.
Michigan faced Washington at 2 p.m. Saturday. The loser there plays at 7 p.m. against the survivor of the elimination game between Fresno State and Montana.
The championship is at 4 p.m. Sunday, with a second game, if necessary, at 6:30 p.m.
Bulldogs sophomore right-hander Kamalani Dung, coming off a stellar regular season in which she was named Mountain West Pitcher of the Year, walked three in the second and with two outs gave up Natalie Peters’ two-out single as Michigan took a 1-0 lead.
But center fielder Vanessa Hernandez kept it from getting worse, throwing home to nail a second runner trying to score.
Fresno State tied it on Katie Castellon’s foulout sacrifice fly in the fifth. A first-and-third situation had been created after Kierra Willis walked, then advanced two bases when the Wolverines botched Haley Fuller’s sacrifice bunt.
Dung got a groundout to open the bottom of the fifth, but then hit a batter before a bunt single and another to left preceded Aidan Falk’s 0-2 two-run single to right.
Betsa, facing the heart of the Bulldogs’ order, struck out the side in the sixth and fanned two more in the seventh after Willis drew a leadoff walk.
The first Wolverine player with three straight 300-strikeout seasons and the third to surpass 1,000 career strikeouts, Betsa at 1,178 is closing in on Jennie Ritter (1,205, 2003-06) and leader Jordan Taylor (1,220, 2008-11) on Michigan’s all-time list.
Miranda Rohleder had the Bulldogs’ hit, a one-out double in the first. Betsa did walk four.
Dung was charged with three earned runs on four hits and four walks while striking out six.
This story was originally published May 19, 2017 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Fresno State quickly faces elimination game in NCAA Softball Tournament."