Former Lady Baler leads college softball team to regionals for
first time in program history
HOLLISTER
Former Lady Baler J.C. Clayton and the BYU softball team will play in the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time in program history later this week after the Cougars went 3-0 last weekend at a regional tournament in Austin, Texas.
BYU will travel to play No. 10 Arizona (46-11) in a best-of-three series on Friday at 4 p.m.
Game 2 will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, with Game 3 to follow, if necessary.
Friday’s game is scheduled to be televised live on ESPN2, and will be simulcast on ESPN3.com. Saturday’s games can be seen on ESPNU, according to BYU’s website.
The Cougars have never played in a Super Regional, and only qualified after they wrapped up last weekend’s regional tournament in Austin, Texas.
And Clayton, the team’s starting shortstop, had a stellar weekend to help lead BYU to its first Super 8 appearance.
A graduate of San Benito High in 2009 and a true freshman at BYU, Clayton led the Cougars at the plate last weekend when she batted 8 of 10 with three runs scored and an RBI.
It was BYU’s sixth straight trip to the NCAA regional tournament, and they defeated East Carolina 1-0, upset No. 7 Texas 9-8, then earned the championship title over East Carolina with an 8-3 victory.
Clayton was 4 of 5 in the title game against East Carolina with an RBI and two runs scored, and connected on the game-winning sacrifice fly against Texas last Friday.
Early last week, Clayton was named Freshman of the Year in the Mountain West Conference when she led all first-year players in batting average (.446), on-base percentage (.467), runs scored (19), hits (25), triples (two) and total bases (32) during a 15-game conference schedule, according to the school’s website.
Among all players in the MWC, though, Clayton was first in triples, second in runs scored and hits, fifth in batting average, sixth in total bases and ninth in on-base percentage.
