Softball team splits doubleheader with Jacksonville

Junior pitcher Georgina Corrick pitched a complete-game shutout against the Dolphins in the first game of a doubleheader Sunday.
SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/USF ATHLETICS

In a doubleheader against Jacksonville on Sunday, the USF softball team revealed promise along with some clear deficiencies. After winning the first game 1-0, the Bulls went on to get blown out 14-4 in the second.

The first game was a pitcher’s duel between junior Georgina Corrick of the Bulls and Jacksonville redshirt senior Alyssa Bilodeau. Corrick held Jacksonville to just four hits and didn’t allow a single run over eight innings.

“This summer [Corrick] got herself in real good shape,” USF coach Ken Eriksen said. “She pitched really well this summer internationally, and then I think she started to work on a lot of different things in respect of how to make herself more fluid, worked on a couple different location pitches.

“She’s so steady upstairs, it’s like she’s painting a picture and she’s playing chess at the same time.”

The difference in Game 1 proved to be a walk-off home run redshirt freshman Jordyn Kadlub sent over the left-field wall in the bottom of the eighth inning. It was Kadlub’s first career home run and a surreal moment for her.

“I honestly can’t remember it too much, I kind of blacked out for a second,” she said. “It was a very exciting moment for everyone.”

Game 2 was an inverse of the first as the Bulls struggled against Jacksonville’s offense. The Dolphins’ bats came out firing as they scored eight runs in the first three innings.

Eriksen said his team must limit the “freebies” given to opponents, and the pitchers have to learn what they do best.

“Take a look at the lines, 17 freebies in game two. Hit by pitches, walks and errors, and the defense doesn’t help when you’re not making plays to kill an inning early, so you’re throwing to extra batters,” Eriksen said. “Our guys have to learn also, it’s not necessarily about trying to get the strikeout, let’s try and pitch for contact and we’ll take a 0-0 count ground ball, and a 1-0 count ground ball.

“There’s not a lot of people on the staff outside of Georgina that are strikeout pitchers, so understand your craft, understand what you do.”

Eriksen also said that even though the pitching staff struggled, they are still learning and the growth is coming with the more reps they receive.

“They’re learning that [their craft and what they do] as they go,” he said. “And remember, we’re one of the few teams that didn’t have any preseason games, that was only our third and fourth game tonight, where everybody else has already played seven, or eight, or nine.

“They’re learning the philosophy; you can’t dance around hitters, you got to go after them.”

Next up for the Bulls is a three-game series at home against Florida Atlantic starting Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. That game will be followed by a doubleheader Feb. 28 with the first game set to begin at 3 p.m. and the second game scheduled to start at 5:15 p.m.

All three games against the Owls will be televised on ESPN+.