USF softball’s spectacular defense stuns Washington in NCAA tournament win

The formula USF's softball team has used throughout the season is simple to say but not always easy to do.

Play loose. Minimize mistakes. See the ball, catch the ball.

The Bulls used all three of those elements Friday night and they meshed perfectly in a 3-1 win over favored Washington in the opening round win in the NCAA Fayetteville regional tournament.

Step No. 1: Play loose. If there was any stage fright playing in a high-stakes game on national TV, it didn't show. Even when they fell behind 1-0 in the second inning, no problem. They evened it up in the top of the third.

Step No. 2; Minimize mistakes. USF committed no errors and flashed its usual outstanding defense. Which leads us to ....

Step. No. 3; See the ball, catch the ball.

The Huskies had a runner on first to start the fourth inning in a tie game. The next batter sent a hard-hit ball up the middle, but shortstop Alex Wilkes interrupted its path with a diving stop, flipped it to second baseman Kathy Garcia-Soto, who turned the double play.

With the score still 1-1, the Bulls did it again in the sixth after a leadoff single by the Huskies. USF first baseman Jamia Nelson fielded a ground ball, threw to Wilkes to get the runner at second and Garcia-Soto took the relay at first to complete the double play.

The Bulls broke it open with two runs in the seventh. Pitcher Anne Long made sure that stood up by retiring the Huskies in order in the bottom half of the inning. She is now 22-5.

"Those are the two sickest double plays I've ever seen in my entire life. 
And I mean, to tell you that, I've never seen things like that. As old as I get, as long as I stay in this game, I've said this before, when you think you've seen at all, you just wait," Bulls coach Ken Eriksen said.

USF will be back at it Saturday at 2 p.m. EDT against the host Arkansas Razorbacks, who beat Fordham 8-0 on Friday. The Razorbacks are the No. 5 overall seed in the tournament and will be backed by a raucous home crowd.

But for USF, it goes back to something Eriksen said before the season started. He could see special qualities in his team, and he was correct.

"They were really, really disappointed last year after we got beat in the regionals against Auburn. They knew that they had a pitching staff that was decimated last year, with injuries, and it was disappointing that we couldn't get the last out, and the last out," he said.

"But they were relentless still. And they put it upon themselves to go back to back in the conference this year. You know, they wanted to win the regular season and the conference championship. For me, it was just being in kind of the co pilot seat the whole year and watching them do what they had to do. 
I mean, you set up the structure, you set up the practices, you give them the nuances of the game, this could happen, and that could happen. But they brought into it the whole time."

When that happens, you play loose. You minimize mistakes.

And you see the ball, catch the ball.

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