To win 18 consecutive midweek games across three seasons, a softball team must have unlikely heroes step up here and there. For Notre Dame, who has accomplished that feat, those improbable moments have come in bunches recently.
Recall the heroics of junior catcher Rachel Allen during Notre Dame’s home-opening doubleheader on March 12. In game two against Bowling Green, she went 3-for-5, tying the contest with a solo home run in the seventh before winning it on an eighth-inning single. Allen had entered that game without a long ball on the season.
A week later, senior infielder Bryn Boznanski made a pinch-hit appearance in the sixth inning of a tie game against Michigan State. With just five runs batted in across three seasons and change, Boznanski plated two runs with a single, helping Notre Dame to a comeback win.
On Tuesday against Western Michigan, junior shortstop Anna Holloway made midweek magic with another unanticipated swing. With one out in the seventh inning of a tie game, she stepped up to the plate with no home runs on the year and a batting average below .190. Holloway put her best swing of the season on the first pitch she saw, sending it over the wall in dead center field. The walk-off home run, Notre Dame’s first in more than two years, clinched a 3-2 Irish victory and denied the Broncos’ upset bid.
But throughout the game, that upset bid appeared likely. Western Michigan starting pitcher Rissa Bajusz held Notre Dame in check all afternoon until Holloway took her deep. Inning after inning, the Broncos pressured the Irish with a consistent stream of runners in scoring position.
Working against graduate right-hander Alexis Laudenslager, Notre Dame’s starting pitcher, Western Michigan put runners on second and third in two of the first three innings. However, the middle of the visiting order failed to survive, as Laudenslager struck our four across 3 2/3 innings.
In between those missed opportunities, the Irish started the scoring in the second. A leadoff walk by Bajusz turned into a run-scoring single from sophomore center fielder Mickey Winchell.
Western Michigan took the lead two innings later and chased Laudenslager from the circle. Four consecutive hitters reached with two outs, including junior Payton Kelly, whose infield hit scored two runs.
Laudenslager departed with two runners on and two outs, giving way to sophomore right-hander Micaela Kastor. After loading the bases with a walk, Kastor found her stride in the circle. She ended the fourth with a strikeout, beginning a stretch in which she retired nine consecutive Broncos.
In the sixth, Kastor punched out the side, returning life to an Irish team that had made seven straight outs against Bajusz. After the Bronco starter recorded an eighth, senior third baseman Cassidy Grimm and freshman second baseman Addison Amaral ripped back-to-back singles, placing the tying run in scoring position. Though senior first baseman Karina Gaskins went down swinging, Allen picked her up with two outs, singling on the infield to tie the game.
An inning later, after Kastor stranded two Broncos on base, Holloway’s straightaway shot ended the game.
With a trip to Tallahassee and No. 18 Florida State coming up, Notre Dame needed every bit of momentum generated from Tuesday’s win. The Irish now sit 23-14 overall (7-8 ACC) and will return to conference play at 6 p.m. on Friday.
