 For most programs, the NCAA D-I softball schedule turns to the conference slate about now, where teams look to execute in higher-stakes games with eyes turning to postseason opportunities soon enough. Triple Crown Sports is proud to produce the Postseason NISC again in 2024 for deserving teams not making the NCAA bracket. We check in with BYU here, off to a great start this season after reaching the 2023 NISC title game last May.
By Kyle Koso With 800 victories already in his back pocket, Gordon Eakin could plot and plan this past offseason with a sense of calm, even though something revolutionary was about to happen to his program. The BYU head softball coach entered the 2024 campaign with two things coaches absolutely love – a seasoned batch of seniors, and a hefty cluster of sophomores who saw a ton of time the year before, skilled and savvy enough to raise the ceiling of possibilities for the weeks ahead. Good thing, too, because this year marks the debut of the Cougars in the Big 12 Conference, where giants in the sports such as Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor and Oklahoma State have been wreaking havoc for a generation. BYU starts the Big 12 slate on Thursday against Texas Tech (17-4), owning a 14-4 record and sitting sixth in the nation in runs scored per game. Senior Maddie Bejarano is hitting .512, which ranks 12th in D-I; classmate Violet Zavodnik has a .460 batting average with six home runs, and fellow seniors Huntyr Ava (.351, 25 RBI) and pitcher Chloe Temples (2.87 ERA, 5-1 record, 54 strikeouts in 46.1 innings) are clearly reliable assets in the lineup. “It’s a fair statement but there’s a lot more happening than just them. We started six freshmen through last year, and their experience gave them the ability to it the ground running this year,” said Eakin, whose team notched a satisfying comeback win on Feb. 29 over UC Davis with a late-inning burst. “Anytime you can come back and win one, that’s a character builder, so you’re always happy with that. We did the same thing in Hawaii, got behind UMKC in our very first game, 8-0 in the first inning, and came back. We’ve trailed in numerous games and been able to come back; all of those are what I call character builders where you prove to yourself you can never quit until the last out.” Backing up the veterans are players such as sophomores Lily Owens (.479) and Ailana Agbayani (.431, team-high 25 hits and 25 runs), and freshman Kate Dahle has impressed in the pitching circle early, going 4-2 with a 1.77 ERA in 31.2 innings. BYU’s efforts to test this group early, in advance of the competitive challenges to come, have been useful. The Cougars don’t always get to pick their matchups in early-season tournaments, but there are results that resonate – a nice win over Ole Miss (now 15-5 on the year) and a nail-biter vs. Virginia Tech (15-3-1) that could have gone either way. “We’ve tried to schedule as tough a non-conference schedule as we can so it’s not entirely foreign to play a Big 12-type team. The difference is, now it’s the gauntlet of doing it week after week, with no break,” Eakin said. “It’s something you just have to experience. We’ve talked about it – how to be resilient and take a punch, get back up and compete. We’ve addressed it, and I don’t think our players are intimidated by it. But until we actually live it, we won’t be able to learn the lessons we have to learn.” The Cougars will hope their high-powered offense can carry a lot of the pressure as the Big 12 fires up, especially with a lot of young arms about to be leaned on at pitcher. “We have some unknowns with the youth of our pitching staff,” Eakin added. “We played some good teams, a couple great ones, some middle of the road and lower … our staff has held up pretty well. Now, what do you do in a three-game series against Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State? It’s a young staff, we’re talented and deep, but young in the circle.” On the NISC – BYU played very well in the Postseason NISC in 2023, coming up just short vs. Iowa in the championship game, and Eakin agrees that his roster got a boost from the chance to feel that win-or-go-home pressure. “That’s the main reason we wanted to participate in it last year, we were so young, and we wanted to give the team, young and old, some tournament-type games where it’s all on the line. It was a great help for us, especially to be able to go all the way to the championship game, where we lost a heartbreaker to Iowa. It helped us kick off this year with some more confidence and experience since we were so young.” |
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