Oregon State
Arkansas
Draper Tosses One-Hitter To Lead Beavers To 4-1 Win Over Arkansas
May 19, 2000 | Softball
May 19, 2000
NORMAN, Okla. - Crystal Draper was one pitch away from throwing a perfect game, as she led the Oregon State softball team to a 4-1 come-from-behind victory over Arkansas in day two of NCAA regional softball action Friday.
The win keeps OSU (39-19-1) in the winner's bracket, with the Beavers facing top-seeded Oklahoma at 10 a.m. PDT Saturday. Should the Beavers win, they will advance to Sunday's championship game. If they lose, they will have to beat the winner of the Saturday's Northwestern/Arkansas game to advance to the championship game.
Draper started off the game by giving up a solo home run to Arkansas' leadoff hitter, Erin Stockey, but then retired the next 21 Lady Back batters. Fourteen of those outs were on strikeouts, tying her own OSU single-game record for K's in a seven-inning game.
"I didn't really think about the home run they hit. I knew that we could come back," Draper said. "We are a great hitting team, and I knew we could come back if I just pitched like I knew I could."
Arkansas' Rachel Talley had a no-hitter going until the fifth inning when Tarrah Beyster led off the inning with her 16th home run of the year to break up the no-hitter and tie the game.
"It felt great, but I didn't hit it as well as I would have liked," Beyster said. "All I wanted to do was get on base and let one of the other girls hit me in, but I hit it hard enough."
Talley got the next two Beavers out, but Brooke Rutschman on a fielding error by shortstop Tiffany Whooley. Cara Maxey and Parisa Plant came up with back-to-back hits, with Plant's single driving in the go-ahead run. Shawna Feldt added another hit to score Maxey, and then Arkansas brought in reliever Tammy Kincaid. Brynnen Guthrie singled to drive in the fourth run of the inning, and Shelly Prochaska walked to load the bases. That brought up Beyster for the second time that inning, but she popped up to short to end the inning,
"This was a great come-from-behind win for. It was fortunate that we were able to break it open in the fifth inning," coach Kirk Walker said. "Crystal pitched a great ball-game, in fact it was a perfect game except for that first batter."
Draper improved to 13-7 on the year after throwing her second one-hitter of the year. Talley (13-12) took the loss for Arkanas and gave up four hits and four runs with one strikeout.
In other scores from the tournament, Oklahoma defeated CS-Northridge 2-1, and Northwestern picked up a 9-6 win over Harvard. Northridge and Harvard were eliminated after Friday's games.
Game Results
Arkansas 100 000 0 - 1 1 2 Oregon State 000 040 x - 4 5 0
Talley, Kincaid (5) and Howlett. Draper and T. Feldt. WP- Draper (13-7). LP- Talley (13-12). HR- Beyster (OSU), Stokey (Arkansas).
