Pitcher Mariah Lopez deals, but Utes can’t find scoring, falling 2-1 to South Carolina in NCAA tournament
Utah pitcher Mariah Lopez had another solid performance in the circle, but the Utes only mustered one run, falling to South Carolina 2-1 in the opening game of the NCAA tournament.
South Carolina pitcher Alana Vawter got the win, throwing a complete game — allowing four hits, a run and striking out four over seven innings. Vawter got the Utes to chase on pitches out of the strike zone at times, something that Utah did too often in the Pac-12 championship loss to UCLA last week.
“We didn’t play our best today. We were prepared and yet had some second guessing and some uncomfortable at-bats and they carried too far into the game. Before you know it, we were running out of outs. Pretty disappointing on day one to come out that flat,” Utah coach Amy Hogue said.
Utah struck first with an RBI double from Abby Dayton in the third inning, driving home Aliya Belarde, who doubled earlier in the frame.
In the bottom of the third inning, South Carolina scored two runs after the Gamecocks put two on base via a walk and a double. A deep flyout to left field from Jen Cummings brought in Denver Bryant from third base to tie the game, then a two-out, full-count single from Aniyah Black scored Riley Blampied to give South Carolina the lead.
Lopez was masterful from the fourth inning on, retiring all but one of the next 11 batters she faced the rest of the way (an additional runner reached on an error), but didn’t get enough run support. The Utes had just two hits the rest of the way and never advanced a runner past first base with Vawter pitching at her best.
The senior pitcher threw a complete game — four hits, two runs and eight strikeouts over six innings.
“Mariah threw well enough to win this game and the last one we played and our hitters aren’t finding a way to make those adjustments. And like I said, it’s been pretty disappointing,” Hogue said.
The Utes are still alive in the double-elimination regional, but have a long way to go to advance to the super regional, needing to win four consecutive games. That journey will start on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. MDT, as Utah faces the loser of Duke and Morgan State.
“We just talked about the things that we can control. Asked them what it felt like in the box today, why it is that they struggled so much when we know they’re capable,” Hogue said. “So the conversation was about how to flip some of those things in their head a little bit so they can go out and do their best because we are down to our last game and you got to earn more games by winning now. So their backs are against the wall.”
