The Ohio State softball team won both opening-day contests on Friday, topping North Carolina Central 13-0 and UNC Greensboro 10-6 at the Elon Softball Classic on the campus of Elon University.
The Short Story
Pitcher Lorin Boutte became just the second freshman in 24 years to throw a no-hitter and the first since 2014. She struck out 13 batters in five innings to lead the Buckeyes to a 13-0 win over North Carolina Central in the first game of the day. Boutte allowed just one baserunner among the 16 batters that she faced.
The Ohio State offense scored three times in the first and second innings to jump ahead 6-0. Jasmyn Burns, who finished the game 3-for-4 with a home run and five RBI, connected on a three-run blast in the first inning and senior Reagan Milliken added a solo shot in the fourth inning. In all, eight different players recorded a hit and six drove in runs.
In the second game of the day, the Buckeyes used a five-run seventh inning to break a 5-5 tie to pull away from the Spartans. Key hits in the rally came off the bat of Morgan Frye, Skylar Limon, and Kaitlyn Farley, who all provided run-scoring doubles. The Buckeyes had 17 hits in the game, as Kami Kortokrax and Sami Bewick each went 3-for-5 while Frye, Limon, and Tanaya Barrett each had two hits. Kennedy Kay was the winning pitcher as she tossed 4.2 innings with six strikeouts.
Buckeye This and That
- Friday’s wins were the first at Ohio State under head coach Kirin Kumar, who spent the last four seasons as the head coach at Miami University. Kumar’s career record now stands at 176-56-1.
- Three newcomers made their Buckeye debuts in the starting lineup against North Carolina Central: Sami Bewick, a transfer from Miami University; Morgan Frye, a transfer from Berry College and Boutte. Two others came into the game in the later innings: Emma Tolley, a transfer from UC Riverside, and freshman outfielder Tanaya Barrett. Freshman pitcher Layna Gerhard made her collegiate debut against UNC Greensboro.
- The last freshman to pitch a no-hitter came nearly 11 years to the day – on Feb. 16, 2014, Shelby Hursh struck out 12 batters in an 8-0 six-inning win over Utah Valley. The only other freshman no-hitter was by Kristi DeVries against Eastern Michigan in 2001.
- Burns hit .750 on the day (6-for-8) with five RBI and two runs scored. She was one of six players who had three or more hits in the two games combined. The others were: Kortokrax (.500, two runs scored), Bewick (.400, three runs scored), Reagan Milliken (.375, one home run), Frye (.600, four runs scored), and Limon (.500, one double, two runs scored).
- Today’s game was the Buckeyes’ first-ever against North Carolina Central and their third in program history versus UNC Greensboro