VIDEO: Farritor Grand Slam
YANKTON, S.D. – Sophomore Keira Farritor has launched herself towards stardom and into the record book. In Wednesday (April 8)’s game two, Farritor slugged home runs in each of her first three plate appearances, capping the barrage with a grand slam in the third inning. Her historic effort helped wash away some of the sting of the loss in game one of the doubleheader at Mount Marty. Concordia University, Nebraska Softball dropped the first contest by a score of 6-3 before rebounding to win by the run rule, 13-3, in game two.
Head Coach Brock Culler’s squad is in the midst of a pivotal six-game week within the conference. The Bulldogs will take a 5-5 league mark (16-13 overall) into weekend action.
“In my years of coaching, I haven’t seen that before,” Culler said. “They were hammered. Those were all no-doubters. Keira saw the ball really well. That got our dugout absolutely fired up. It was contagious, and away we went … The game has slowed down for her. She’s really honed in on the pitches she wants to hit. She makes the pitches come to her. That’s the biggest difference.”
Call it the Keira Farritor Game. Incredibly, Farritor homered in each of her first three at bats – three separate innings – while producing one of the best single-game performances in program history. Farritor belted a two-run shot in the first, slugged another two-run blast in the second and then pulverized a grand slam in the third. In a fourth plate appearance, Farritor drew a walk. She finished with eight RBIs out of the No. 3 spot in the lineup.
It wasn’t just Farritor. If he could, Culler would bottle up that game two performance and open it up again. Concordia rapped out 14 hits (six for extra bases) and tore up the base paths with 10 stolen bases, including three form leadoff hitter Mary Beth Hart. As part of the win, Aubriana Krieser notched two hits, pushing her past 100 for her career. Others with multiple hits in the slugfest were Laycee Josoff, Grace Maguire and Tobi Topp. Taryn Ganstrom also doubled and drove in two runs.
In game one, the Bulldogs briefly owned a 1-0 lead when an error scored a run in the third. The Lancers built an advantage by putting up a run apiece in the third and fourth frames and two apiece in the fifth and sixth innings. Hart starred with three hits at the top of the Concordia lineup. Farritor also knocked in a run in game one (nine RBIs for the day) and Topp notched two hits and a run. Pitcher Kaylei Denison reached nine straight scoreless innings (counting her shutout of Hastings) before the Lancers (12-18, 3-7 GPAC) got on the board in the third.
Freshman Kierstyn Linn threw all five innings of the run-rule shortened game two. She rounded into form after surrendering two runs in the first. She got plenty of support offensively in what Culler hopes will be a springboard over the second half of the conference schedule.
Said Culler, “I would love to play that kind of softball all the time. We talked about it after game one – we’re going to be very patient at the plate, we’re going to hit the pitch we want to hit and we are going to run. We put the pressure on Mount Marty … it was great to see Aubriana get her 100th hit, and Kierstyn threw really well in game two. There were a lot of good things going on in that second game.”
Farritor became the first Bulldog to homer three times in a single game since Clarissa Eloge achieved the hat trick against Friends University (Kan.) on March 6, 2010. Those are the program’s lone three-homer games on record.
The Bulldogs will be back at Plum Creek Park on Saturday for a doubleheader with Northwestern (23-12, 8-4 GPAC). First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT in Seward. The Red Raiders swept GPAC regular season and tournament championships last season and are receiving votes in the NAIA coaches’ poll (first team out of the top 25).