Fresno State handles No. 3 Texas star Elish to get signature softball victory
The Fresno State softball team, already knocking on the door of the national rankings, knocked off No. 3 Texas 4-3 Saturday afternoon in Fullerton.
The Bulldogs got No. 2 Washington in the next game of the Judi Garman Classic, a difficult turnaround, and the Huskies held Fresno State to one hit in an 8-0, five-inning win.
It didn’t diminish the Bulldogs’ opening win. Fresno State (15-4) had eight hits and four earned runs against Texas’ Miranda Elish, who came in with a 1.11 ERA and a .136 opponents’ batting average.
Better yet, the Bulldogs kept Elish from doing damage at the plate. The Oregon transfer is the Longhorns’ No. 3 hitter, but was 0 for 4 against Fresno State. Hailey Dolcini and Danielle Lung each struck her out.
Elish is on the preseason national player of the year watch list.
After No. 9 batter Courtney Day hit her second homer of the game, leading off the seventh, Lung came on. She allowed a walk and Texas got the runner to second, but Elish struck out swinging and cleanup batter Mary Iakopo (another Oregon transfer) grounded out to short to end it.
Bulldogs sophomore Vanessa Hernandez, the Sanger product working her way back from a preseason shoulder injury, was 2 for 3 with a run and an RBI as the designated player.
Fresno State’s last win against a top-five team was in 2011 when the Bulldogs beat No. 5 Michigan.
Fresno State tried to ride the momentum with Lung starting against Washington, but she was out after allowing three runs in two innings. The Huskies got to the Bulldogs’ relievers to finish the game early.
Friday, Fresno State started the tournament with a 3-2 win over Illinois. Sunday, the Bulldogs play Cal State Fullerton and Loyola Marymount.
Fresno State started the week two spots out of the USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Top 25 with 39 points, trailing Central Florida (96) and No. 25 Texas Tech (122).
Thoughts with teammate
The Bulldogs’ bus ride Thursday night took a detour to Woodlake, where the team stopped to visit senior catcher Kelcey Carrasco and her family. Carrasco returned home Wednesday night after the death of her father, Rudy, in a car crash in Tulare.
This story was originally published February 29, 2020 at 5:20 PM.