What could be better than throwing a softball no-hitter?
How about hitting a home run, too?
Kassie Humphreys delivered both as Kansas University blanked New Mexico, 4-0, in the championship game of the Jayhawk Invitational on Sunday afternoon at Arrocha Ballpark.
The home run – a solo shot over the left-field fence leading off the fifth inning – was Humphreys’ second of the season.
“I usually hit one a year, and I’m done,” said Humphreys, a 5-foot-11 senior from Glendale, Ariz.
Actually, Humphreys now has as many career home runs – four – as she has no-hitters. She tossed three no-nos last season. On Sunday, she was untouchable.
“I can’t recall a ball that was hit hard off her,” KU coach Tracy Bunge said.
On the flip side, Humphreys often couldn’t find home plate with radar. She walked seven and hit a batter.
“It wasn’t a pretty no-hitter,” Bunge said with a smile, “but it was a no-hitter. She was good and bad. When she was bad, she was wild, but when she was good, she was really good.”
Humphreys, who had tossed a two-hit shutout against the Lobos on Saturday, simply might have been too hyped because of the championship implications, and needed to be calmed down.
For instance, in the third inning, Humphreys had issued her third walk and went 3-0 on the Lobos’ Amy Ray when pitching coach Jen Sewell visited the mound.
“Coach Sewell told me it was a mechanical thing, but it was more than that,” Humphreys said. “Sometimes, I just need to breathe for a while.”
Minutes after Sewell’s long visit, Humphreys threw three straight strikes to Ray to end the inning. Humphreys finished with eight K’s, whiffing Jennifer Deitrich, a Santa Fe Trail High product, to secure the no-hitter and boost her record to 10-2.
Kansas won four of its five tournament games, and Humphreys was involved in all the victories. She won three and saved the other. Overall, she hurled 181â3 innings, gave up four hits, no runs and fanned 26.
Those numbers weren’t necessarily surprising because Humphreys is established as one of the Big 12’s best pitchers, but she certainly hasn’t been one of the league’s best hitters. Last year, for example, in 85 at-bats, she mustered only a .129 average.
On Sunday, Humphreys went 2-for-3, doubling in an insurance run in the sixth and posing a problem for Bunge about how to find a spot for her in the batting order when she isn’t pitching.
“Our best offense is when she’s in the lineup,” Bunge said. “She’s gotten better and better as a hitter. She’s worked hard, and it’s starting to pay off.”
Shortstop Stevie Crisosto had three singles Sunday and batted a team-high .385 for the tournament. First baseman Amanda Jobe hit .357 in the five games.
Kansas (15-7-1) will entertain UMKC in a Tuesday twinbill before heading to a tournament in Sacramento, Calif., next weekend.
Boston ? During Maryland’s last visit to this city, for a regular-season game against Boston College, coach Brenda Frese took her team on a surprise bus trip.
The destination was undisclosed.
The players were puzzled.
But when they unloaded at the new Boston Garden, the site of the NCAA women’s Final Four, the message was clear.
“If you want to come back here, the next time will be for the Final Four,” Maryland guard Shay Doron recalled on Monday, a day before the Terrapins play Duke for the NCAA title. “That feeling was unbelievable. You just want to get back here no matter what.”
Maryland (33-4) reached the title game by beating top-ranked North Carolina in the semifinals Sunday – its second victory this year over the Tar Heels, a team no one else beat even once. But the groundwork was laid much earlier, when Frese took over the once-proud program in 2002.
The original power in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a charter member of the NCAA Final Four, 25 years ago, Maryland won five of the ACC’s first six tournaments but hadn’t broken .500 in the conference in five years before Frese arrived.
“First, it is my job to keep reminding people of history, because we feel like it’s pretty special at Maryland,” Frese said. “I think people forget, since it was in the 1980s, that Maryland still owns the most ACC titles and has done some pretty special things.”
So Frese didn’t talk about making baby steps back to greatness.
“From day one, it’s always been about an ACC championship, the NCAA championship,” Doron said. “I think it was just making us believe that we can be a part of something different that nobody in the country can say they’ve ever done.”
After going 10-18 (4-12 ACC) in her first season, Maryland won 18, 22 and a school-record 33 games this season under Frese. And when the Terrapins visited the TD Banknorth Garden before their Jan. 5 game against BC, it wasn’t too improbable that they would be back.
“None of us knew where we were going,”‘ center Crystal Langhorne said. “We were coming from practice and I’m like, ‘This isn’t the way back to the hotel.”‘
Inside the building, even though it was suited out for hockey, players stretched out in the seats and let the atmosphere soak in.
“I think it was a powerful move. It was very inspirational,” forward Laura Harper said. “It’s kind of like a dream and now this dream’s come true.”
Well, not yet.
First comes another No. 1 seed: Duke (31-3), which is trying to earn its first national championship in its fourth trip to the Final Four since 1999. The Blue Devils also visited Boston College’s Chestnut Hill campus this season, but coach Gail Goestenkors opted not to make a special trip to see the championship site.
“I’ve done that in the past several years and I felt like that put more pressure on my kids, honestly,” she said.
“I guess I’ve let that pressure go. I’ve let that worry go about winning the national title. I feel like we’re going to win it at some point. I know we’re going to win it at some point. So that’s given me great freedom, great confidence.”
Coach G will rely on frontcourt stars Alison Bales and Mistie Williams to take back whatever advantage Maryland has with its speed. The ACC rivals already have played three times this year, and Maryland has improved each time – losing by 18, losing by 10 and then winning by eight in the semifinals of the ACC tournament.
“I could tell you what each of them ate for breakfast this morning,” Doron said. “Both teams know each other very well.”