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Katie Donovan, making her second collegiate start, had been just one strike away from a no-hitter until Idaho State's Hailey Breakwell fouled off four pitches and blooped a single into left field.
Afterward, Utah softball coach Amy Hogue went over to congratulate and half-jestingly console Donovan's mother, Linda Stevenson.
"She almost got it," Hogue recalls saying.
"I'm glad she didn't," Stevenson responded. "I need her to keep working."
Donovan, daughter and granddaughter to accomplished softball pitchers, has done so — though an extra strike may not have stopped her.
Two weeks later, the Salem, Ore., native completed Utah's first no-hitter since 2012, and Hogue said she still used Tuesday's time off to throw, despite being advised that a superficial injury to her finger won't heal without downtime.
The Utes stand 12-4 after losing their first three games, having entered the season as one of the Pac-12's best at the plate and in the field. What they'd needed, Hogue had said, was a dominant, workhorse pitcher — something along the lines of 1994 phenom Ali Andrus (now Sagas).
Enter Donovan. The reigning conference Freshman of the Week has started eight games and appeared in 14, going 4-1 with a 1.96 ERA and a .186 opponent batting average.
The only unknown about her now, Hogue said, is "I don't know where the ceiling is for her. We've seen her do things that are already beyond where we'd thought she'd be."
Stevenson, who pitched at South Dakota State and Minnesota and is herself the daughter of a South Dakota ASA Softball Hall of Fame pitcher, said Donovan was about 9 or 10 when she embraced the work ethic that it would take to follow in their footsteps. "She never didn't want to do lessons," she said.
As her daughter got older, Stevenson became her "unofficial pitching coach," Donovan said, acquiring shin guards and a facemask for improvised bullpen sessions.
"They're overachievers," Hogue said of Donovan's family, which also includes older sister Lauren, a Stanford infielder the past three seasons. "Every single one of them, in every single way. They play hard, they study hard, they work hard. I don't know if they're any good at chillaxing. Maybe they're bad at that."
Donovan went on to toss five no-hitters and two perfect games in high school, catching Utah's eye and earning an invitation to the Utes' winter camp.
She committed, and other suitors came calling, but Donovan stayed loyal.
Hogue has had more and more reason to be grateful for that.
Donovan held No. 24 Notre Dame to three runs over six innings in her first collegiate start. Since, coaches have begun to see that there was more to her than the raw stuff on display in camp and in fall.
Said Hogue, "We were like, 'Whoa.' She has stuff you can't teach. She could care less who you are and what you've done, she's so focused on what her plan is."
She went on to hold Cal State Northridge scoreless before the no-hitter against Nevada, in which her lone mistake was a hit batter. A day later, she held No. 10 Tennessee to three runs on four hits in a complete-game victory — Utah's first over a ranked team at a neutral site since 2008.
What's more, Donovan's rise ball has been the ideal complement to the "heavy" drop ball of fellow freshman Miranda Viramontes.
Viramontes is not yet as complete a pitcher as Donovan — who can close our her own games more frequently because she has a broader arsenal — but her approach is tailor-made for Utah's infield defense, which led the nation in double plays last season.
"All I've got to do is just roll a ground ball for them," said Viramontes, who hails from Chino, Calif., and is 4-3 with a 2.84 ERA and a .237 opponent batting average.
Said Hogue: "She's had some innings where she threw five pitches and we were back in the dugout."
It's exactly what Hogue was hoping for, and what she thought she might have when she said in November 2013 that this year's freshman class gave her "chills" to think about.
"It's been fun to see what I thought we would see. It's been fun to be right."
Twitter: @matthew_piper —
Utah softball
The Utes return to action on Tuesday in Walnut, Calif., against the College of Charleston, and open at home March 21 against Oregon at Utah Softball Stadium.