North Dakota State pitcher Krista Menke threw 183 total pitches Friday. Her coach, Darren Mueller, didn’t even consider subbing her out with a seven-run lead against BYU.
Menke has gotten the Bison to this point, so why risk a momentum shift?
No offense to NDSU’s supporting pitchers, but Mueller said he had plenty of confidence in Menke.
“She threw a phenomenal game,” Mueller said of Menke.
All she needs to recover from 13 innings on Friday is sleep, ice and a quick massage, no big deal, Menke said.
She’s in line to once against take the circle in the NCAA Eugene regional championship in a rematch against No. 2-ranked Oregon (1 p.m., Pac-12 live stream/KWVA).
“We’re going to fix a couple things here and there, because they out-executed us obviously in that big inning,” Menke said, “but we’re just going to go out there and attack.”
Menke, who Ducks head coach Mike White has called a ‘right-handed’ Cheridan Hawkins, struck out nine and gave up three hits against BYU in a complete-game effort.
The Ducks topped NDSU 4-3 in the first game Friday and will be tested just over 24 hours after the first meeting.
“It was overall a great game,” White said of the first meeting, “but we are happy to be in the driver’s seat heading into tomorrow.”
Mueller said he looks at today’s game as a clean slate, knowing how the team can tweak its game for the Ducks.
“The main goal coming out here was getting to the championship game,” Mueller said.
North Dakota State 7, BYU 0
In the final game of Friday’s NCAA Eugene regional, the Bison (45-10) sent the Cougars (40-14) packing.
In the top the first, NDSU stuck first after Cheyenne Garcia doubled with two outs. Alyssa Reina doubled Garcia home on a ball off the left field fence. NDSU tacked on another run in the second after Jackie Shifter walked, stole second and advanced to third on an error. She scored on a single by Katie Shoultz.
NDSU starting pitcher Krista Menke went the distance in her second game of the day. She tossed seven innings of three-hit ball in 100 pitches.
After two singles and a walk courtesy of BYU in the NDSU side of the third, the Bison capitalized on a two-run single by Amanda Grable, pushing the NDSU lead to 4-0.
In the fourth, NDSU’s Garcia doubled with two outs and scored on a double by Alyssa Reina. The Bison tacked runs in the fifth and the sixth innings to push their lead to 7-0.
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