Some things are indeed worth waiting for.
Ask the Cardinals.
Playing in the program's overall eighth NJCAA D1 Softball World Series game Wednesday afternoon in Oxford, Ala., the eighth-seeded Cardinals made history with a dramatic, come-from-behind 9-8 win against 13th-seeded Southern Idaho. Not only was it their first-ever triumph in the event, but it more importantly, kept them alive.
Now 55-9, fifth-year head coach Maria Winn-Ratliff's squad will – you guessed it – wait to learn their next opponent. The Cardinals are scheduled to face the Northeast Alabama-Odessa loser today at 3:45 p.m. Northeast Alabama is the no. 3 seed, and Odessa is the no. 6 seed. That game is set for 11:45 a.m. today.
The history-making win against Southern Idaho was not your typical, run-of-the-mill comeback win. Are you kidding? No, it involved waiting.
The game began at 9 a.m. but was halted in the sixth inning for a rain delay at approximately 11:30 a.m. They would finally resume after almost a seven-hour interruption at 6:20 p.m.
That's when things got real.
Batting in the top of the sixth, Southern Idaho was up 6-4 when the game resumed. Oh, and the Eagles had the bases loaded with one. They managed to score a pair to carry a comfortable 8-4 advantage into the Cardinals' half of the inning.
The Cardinals went to work.
With one out, Georgia Tardiff (remember the name for later) singled. With two out, Kenzie Hess singled to right field, moving Tardiff to second base.
That brought Allie Wainwright to the plate. Uh-oh (from a Southern Idaho perspective).
And, as has been the case all season, Wainwright delivered, crushing a home run over the center field fence to get the Cardinals within one as the seventh inning commenced.
First, Cardinal pitcher Dominique Vargas retired the Eagles in 1-2-3 fashion and then turned it over to her teammates at the plate.
No problem.
Sydney Murphy led off with a double off the base of the wall in right field, jumping all over a 0-2 pitch. After a Southern Idaho pitching change, Amilee Stapp drew a walk. With runners on first and second, Taylor Bilderback laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to put Murphy and Stapp in scoring position.
It was at that point Tardiff, who was 3-for-3 with 4 RBI for the game from the bottom of the batting order, stepped to the plate and singled a 0-1 pitch to right field to bring the long, drawn-out game to a celebratory end for the Cardinals. Murphy and Bilderback both scored!
Hess also had a perfect game at the plate, going 4-for-4.
Picking up the win in the circle, Vargas improved to 21-5 on the year. Makayla Castillo pitched six-plus innings before giving way to Vargas after the delay.
Southern Idaho (44-12) scored five runs in the first inning and was up 6-0 before the Cardinals scored four in the bottom of the fourth.
Here is today's schedule:
9 a.m. – (5) Seminole State vs. (4) Temple
9 a.m. – (9) Eastern Florida State vs. (1) Florida SouthWestern
11:15 a.m. – (7) Paris vs. (2) Northwest Florida State
11:15 .m. – (6) Odessa vs. (3) Northeast Alabama
1:30 p.m. – (16) McCook vs. TBD
3:45 p.m. -- (18) Arizona Western vs. TBD
3:45 p.m. – (8) TVCC vs. Odessa-Northeast Alabama loser
All remaining tournament games will be available online on ESPN+.
