WACO, Texas — Dariana Orme made history on Feb. 17 in Baylor Softball's game against Stephen F. Austin, throwing the first seven-inning perfect game in team history.
Orme led the team to victory 3-0 in the Bear's home opener at Getterman Stadium.
Using just 81 pitches, Orme retired all 21 hitters she faced in the game across seven innings, fanning a career-high ten straight and striking out the side in the third and sixth innings.
“What a phenomenal outing," said Baylor head coach Glenn Moore. "It’s the second perfect game in school history. The key was that she kept her pitch count down. She was somewhere around 10-pitch innings the entire game. She was struggling a little bit, going deep in the count. But she didn’t lose them, that’s typical of her. By the middle of the game, she was missing bats, so we knew the ball was moving pretty good. Then we made a pretty phenomenal defensive play to end it with Amber Toven at shortstop.”
A 2022 All-Big 12 second-team selection, Orme allowed only three would-be fair balls to reach the outfield, and blew first-pitch strikes past 14 of the 21 Stephen F. Austin hitters.
“It’s pretty amazing when you think about some of the good arms we’ve had in here, Heather Stearns, Whitney Canion, Lisa Ferguson, Kelsee Selman," continued Moore. "That just tells you how difficult it is to do that, especially in this day and age. You had a lot more no-hitters back in the day when the hitters weren’t quite as strong as they are today. You’re seeing teams put up 70 or 80 home runs a year, and over a hundred in some cases. Offenses are so much stronger and better than 20 years ago. It’s more and more unusual to see that in our sport, and that makes it pretty phenomenal. Not a better person to enjoy that than Dari Orme. She’s worked through a lot of adversity and stayed locked in the whole game. It’s a good way to open a home season, right?”
Orme herself recounted the excitement and pressure of the moment.
“I think during the sixth inning, I was like, ‘Dang, this game is flying by really fast. What is going on? And I made the mistake of looking at the board. I was like, ‘Is this real?’ So, then I had to just say, OK, let me keep my little routine.’", said Orme. "Now, you don't want to put too much emphasis, and then I started figuring out, like ‘Why is everyone not talking to me? Why is everyone trying to avoid me right now?’ They don't usually do that. I'm usually the one at the front of the dugout. And so, (I) definitely started to feel it when the team was kind of just clearing the little path for me to walk every inning. I was like ‘Oh gosh, here we go.’”
Orme's perfect game was not only the first seven-game perfect game for Baylor, it was only the second perfect game in the school's history. The previous was thrown by Kaci West in a five-inning, run-rule win over Prairie View A&M in 2022.