BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON
After four routs in Las Vegas to open its college softball season, No. 6 Arkansas finally found a little adversity on Sunday.
But the Razorbacks (5-0) fought off a seven-run Baylor fourth inning explosion and then finished off the Bears 11-7 to go unbeaten in the Rebels Kickoff.
“I thought overall it was a really great weekend,” Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel said. “I was really pleased with how the team showed up, how they responded, how they fought together.
“I think it was nice to see a little bit of adversity in a couple of games to see what we were made of and our response.”
Baylor rallied from an 8-0 deficit by erupting in the fourth against starter Arkansas starter Chenise Delce and reliever Robyn Herron.
Callie Turner came on to pitch three scoreless innings of relief, her third appearance of the weekend.
“Callie Turner was on another level and how we are seeing her compete right now is what she has worked her tail off to do,” Deifel said.
The big at bat of the fourth was Shalon Govan’s grand slam off Herron, but Deifel was disappointed that Govan even got the chance to cut it 8-7 with her blast.
“I thought we were very uncharacteristic in the fourth inning of the Baylor game,” Deifel said. “It’s not like us. It was only one earned run, but I thought we could have been sharper defensively in just not letting then get a crooked number there.
“But it gave us an opportunity to responded I was really, really proud of the team and their response.”
Arkansas downed Weber State (8-0), UNLV (11-0), Weber State (11-0) again and Southern Utah (10-2) in its first four games in the event.
The Razorbacks had outscored their foes 48-2 before Baylor’s seven-run outburst on Sunday.
“I just thought the entire team showed a lot of maturity through the whole weekend, through the ups and downs of not having bats like they wanted and they next person picking them up,” Deifel said. “Or not allowing them to carry one at bat to the next.”
Arkansas jumped out 2-0 lead Sunday in the second on Atalyia Rijo’s RBI single and a run-scoring wild pitch.
Rijo was 7 of 11 on the weekend and leads Arkansas in batting average at .636.
Hannah Gammill and Kacie Hoffman had consecutive two-out doubles in the third to push that advantage to 3-0.
Spencer Priggie got a two-run fourth going with a walk before Raigan Kramer, Rio and Reagan Johnson all singled, the final driving in a run each to make it 5-0.
“Reagan was a huge spark for us and I thought Atalyia was greatly productive the entire weekend and then was a lot louder with her production today.”
Cylie Halvorson’s three-run homer later in the fourth pushed it to 8-0 and gave her a pair of round roundtippers and 8 RBIs during the weekend.
Priggie, who had a team-leading 12 RBIs during the weekend, blasted a two-run homer that also scored Hoffman to hand Arkansas a 10-8 lead.
Priggie and Kristina Foreman both had 3 home runs each as the Razorbacks hit 11 in the five games.
Rio’s first career home run in the seventh capped the scoring.
“Spencer was just flat outstanding all weekend on both sides, just really electric at the plate, really in control of her zone.
“Both of those home runs – Spencer and Atalyia’s – were both on two strikes. I think 0-2 counts even more so. I thought they were exceptional.”
Arkansas will return to action next Friday in the TaxAct in Clearwater, Fla.
The Razorbacks will take on No. 4 Florida State (noon CST) and No. 19 Duke (5 p.m.).
They’ll then face Saturday games against Indiana (noon) and No. 24 Louisiana (3:30 p.m.).
Arkansas will finish the event with a Sunday morning 8:30 a.m. game with Nebraska.
