The Perfect Start: BYU Softball Goes 5-0 to Open Season
It was snowing for the majority of the weekend in chilly Provo, Utah. Most BYU students stayed indoors with only the occasional speed walk to their cars. Evenings were dark and solace was found under blankets inside.
That is unless you were the BYU softball team, who played their first set of games in sunny Mānoa, Hawai'i at the Paradise Classic.
In five games, the Cougars went 5-0 with wins over Ole Miss, Nevada, Hawaii, and two wins over Missouri-Kansas City. While the rest of Provo battled the cold, BYU softball had the most perfect start to a season imaginable.
The Comeback
The highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly the opener against Missouri-Kansas City.
In one of the more wild games you will ever see in collegiate softball, BYU fell early to the Roos allowing 8 runs in the first inning.
Where most teams could and probably would have folded, BYU answered in dominant fashion. The cougars rallied off 17 (you read that right) unanswered runs to finish the game in a mercy rule.
“Our team showed great resilience today,” BYU head coach, Gordon Eakin, told the Daily Herald after the comeback win.
You'd have to flip through the pages of softball's history books to find a game where the team who was down 8-0 went on to not only win, but to mercy rule their opponents.
Maddie Bejarano was the star of the game, going 4-4 with a homer, three runs, and five RBI.
Ailana Agbayani's Heroics
In their final game at the paradise classic, BYU faced off against Hawaii.
The hometown team led by two runs going into the final inning, with BYU failing to get a run to that point.
With two runners on base, Ailana Agbayani stepped up to the plate and for only the second time in her collegiate career, she blasted the ball over the fence for a go-ahead 3-run home run.
The Cougars held off Hawaii in the bottom half of the inning to win 3-2.
This was one of many great moments in Agbayani's early career. Last season, the freshman sensation was named to the All-WCC first team. Her performance over the weekend proved last year was no fluke.
Final Scores at the Paradise Classic
BYU 17 - Missouri-Kansas City 8
BYU 7 - Ole Miss 4
BYU 8 - Nevada 0
BYU 3 - Missouri-Kansas City 0
BYU 3 - Hawaii 2
Top Performers
Maddie Bejarano: .500, 6 R, 8H, 1 HR, 5 RBI
Violet Zavodnik: .438, 4 R, 7H, 2 HR, 6 RBI
Ailana Agbayani: .368, 6 R, 7 H, 1 HR, 6 RBI
Chloe Temples: 4 GP, 2-0, 1.54 ERA, 17 k, 4 BB
Up Next
BYU travels to Tempe, Arizona to take on Arizona State on Thursday, February 15th at 7:30 ET.