Florida State softball returned home to Tallahassee, for their final ACC regular series. For the first game of the series against the North Carolina Tar Heels, Ashtyn Danley got the ball to start. Danley began with a lead off walk, and a one out walk put two runners on. The freshman faced a dangerous part of the lineup, walking the bases loaded and less than two outs.

An error from the Seminoles infield pushed across the first run, as well as keeping the bases loaded. FSU traded an out for a run, and a groundout finally ended the visiting half of the 1st, with a 2-0 UNC lead.

Facing Kenna Raye Dark for UNC, Kaley Mudge led off with a single. After the fly out, Kalei Harding reached safely on a soft hit single. With Isa Torres at bat, the freshman shortstop put the ball in play, but UNC couldn’t field it properly, allowing one run to cross home.

Torres stood on third with two outs. Another infield single not in time allowed Devyn Flaherty to reach safely, and Torres to come home to tie the game.

Flaherty was able to scoot over to second base on a passed ball. With two outs, Michaela Edenfield made her return to the FSU lineup. Reaching down on a pitch, Edenfield drove in another run to make it 3-2.

Up a run with two outs, Jahni Kerr extended the lead with a 2-run shot to left field. The two runs ended Dark’s day, bringing in Nikki Harris. Harris was able to end the 5 run inning on a fly out.

Now working with a lead, Danley came back out for the 2nd inning. Leading off, UNC started with a solo shot to get a run back. A hit by pitch added a runner with no outs against Danley. A pair of ground outs and a strike out kept the inning at one run.

In the bottom of the inning, Amaya Ross singled and stole a base against Harris. A fly out advanced Ross to third base, and a single from Jaysoni Beachum brought in the 6th run of the game.

Harris and Danley kept it 6-3 through 3.5 innings, before FSU continued in the bottom of the 4th. Katie Dack led off with a walk, and a single from Ross and Mudge loaded the bases. A sacrifice fly by Beachum, and ground out by Harding added two more runs for FSU. With two outs, Torres homered for her second straight game, busting the door open.

Now in run-rule territory, with a 10-3 score, Emma Wilson, after coming on in relief, made quick work of the Tar Heels in the top of the 5th. A single from Ross and Mudge in the bottom frame set the table for Beachum, who sent everyone home on a walk off 3-run homerun.

FSU took the opening game by a 13-3 score, bringing their season total to 38-10 overall.

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Saturday, April 27th, 4 pm, ESPNU

The Cowboys got a late-night commit.

Indiana transfer running back Trent Howland took a visit to Oklahoma State this week, and he apparently enjoyed it. Howland announced his commitment to the Cowboys in the waning hours of Friday night. A redshirt sophomore this past season with the Hoosiers, Howland is listed at 6-foot-3, 240 pounds and rushed for 354 yards and a pair of touchdowns in 2023. He should have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Howland was also considering Ole Miss, Duke and UCF, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Out of Joliet, Illinois, Howland was a three-star prospect in the 2021 recruiting class. He chose Indiana over offers from Iowa State, Nebraska, Minnesota and others out of high school.

Howland entered the transfer portal in November and initially made a commitment to Minnesota before a change of heart. He then re-entered the portal in April — leading him to Stillwater.

He becomes the second portal running back the Cowboys have taken this offseason, joining Arkansas transfer AJ Green. Howland continues what has become a trend of the Cowboys going after big, bruising backs. Ollie Gordon is listed at 6-2, 215, and the Cowboys picked up Jaden Allen-Hendrix from the high school ranks, who OSU listed at 6-2, 225 on signing day.

Howland’s best performance of the past season came in a November game against Michigan State, where he rushed 19 times for 77 yards and a score. He also had a 13-carry, 72-yard performance against Illinois.

He played nine games for the Hoosiers during the 2022 season, playing both running back and linebacker, primarily playing special teams. That year, he rushed for 12 yards on only two attempts. As a true freshman in 2021, Howland carried six times for 20 yards, redshirting while playing three games.

Howland could provide a release valve for Gordon in the carry department. Gordon carried 285 times in 2023, the eighth-most in program history. Only Gordon and Chuba Hubbard have had 280 carries in a season at OSU since 1996. Lightening Gordon’s load was a topic Mike Gundy touched on earlier this spring.

“We have a lot of carries for another back,” Gundy said. “The 30 carry a game for Ollie is somewhat concerning. Perfect world would be 20 to keep him healthy throughout for us and his career. He had to carry the load last year, moreso than what we’d like. There’s enough carries to go around.”

Picking up Howland could also be a good move for the future. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining, and many early projections have Gordon as one of (if not the) top available running backs for next year’s NFL Draft. Green has just one season of eligibility remaining. So even past him potentially playing a role in 2024, grabbing Howland now could set the Pokes up nicely in 2025.

OMAHA, Neb. — Tornadoes wreaked havoc Friday in the Midwest, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes, many around Omaha, Nebraska.

As of Friday night, there were several reports of injuries but no immediate deaths reported. Tornado warnings continued to be issued into the night in Iowa.

Three people were hurt in Nebraska’s Lancaster County when a tornado hit an industrial building, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but everyone was evacuated and the injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.

One of the most destructive tornadoes moved for miles Friday through mostly rural farmland before chewing up homes and other structures in the suburbs of Omaha, a city of 485,000 people with a metropolitan area population of about 1 million.

Photos on social media showed the small city of Minden, Iowa, about 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) northeast of Omaha also sustained heavy damage.

The forecast for Saturday was ominous. The National Weather Service issued tornado watches across parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Forecasters warned that large hail and strong wind gusts were possible.

“It does look like a big outbreak again tomorrow,” said Becky Kern, the warning coordination meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Omaha office. “Maybe slightly farther south.”

Hundreds of houses sustained damage in Omaha on Friday, mostly in the Elkhorn area in the western part of the city, Omaha police Lt. Neal Bonacci said.

“You definitely see the path of the tornado,” Bonacci said, adding that many of the homes were destroyed or severely damaged.

Police and firefighters went door-to-door to help people, going to the “hardest hit area” with a plan to search anywhere someone could be trapped, Omaha Fire Chief Kathy Bossman said.

“We’ll be looking throughout properties in debris piles, we’ll be looking in basements, trying to find any victims and make sure everybody is rescued who needs assistance,” Bossman said.

In one area of Elkhorn, dozens of newly built, large homes were damaged. At least six were wrecked, including one that was leveled, while others had their top halves ripped off. Dozens of emergency vehicles responded to the area.

“We watched it touch down like 200 yards over there and then we took shelter,” said Pat Woods, who lives in Elkhorn. “We could hear it coming through. When we came up our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood’s gone.”

Kim Woods, his wife, added, “The whole neighborhood just to the north of us is pretty flattened.”

Three people, including a child, were in the basement of the leveled home when the tornado hit but got out safely, according to Dhaval Naik, who said he works with home’s owner.

KETV-TV video showed one woman being removed from a demolished home on a stretcher in Blair, a city just north of Omaha.

Two people were transported for treatment, both with minor injuries, Bonacci said.

Crews were doing a second search of homes. Fire crews would work throughout the night to check all the unsafe structures and make sure no one is inside, Bonacci said.

“People had warnings of this and that saved lives,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said of the few serious injuries.

The tornado warning was issued in the Omaha area on Friday afternoon just as children were due to be released from school. Many schools had students shelter in place until the storm passed. Hours later, buses were still transporting children home.

“Was it one long track tornado or was it several tornadoes?” Kern of the National Weather Service said.

The agency planned to send out multiple crews over the next several days to determine the number of tornadoes and their strength, which could take up to two weeks, she said.

“Some appeared to be violent tornadoes,” Kern continued. “There were tornadoes in different areas. And so it’s like forensic meteorology, we call it, like piecing together, all the damage indicators.”

Another tornado hit an area on the eastern edge of Omaha, passing directly through parts of Eppley Airfield, the city’s airport. Officials halted aircraft operations to access damage but then reopened the facility, Omaha Airport Authority Chief Strategy Officer Steve McCoy said.

The passenger terminal wasn’t hit by the tornado but people rushed to storm shelters until the twister passed, McCoy said.

After passing through the airport, the tornado crossed the Missouri River and into Iowa, north of Council Bluffs.

Nebraska Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Katrina Sperl said Friday afternoon that damage reports were just starting to come in. Taylor Wilson, a spokesperson for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said they hadn’t seen any injuries yet.

In Lancaster County, where three people were injured when an industrial building collapsed, sheriff’s officials also said they had reports of a tipped-over train near Waverly, Nebraska.

Two people who were injured in the county were being treated at the trauma center at Bryan Medical Center West Campus in Lincoln, the facility said in a news release. The hospital said the patients were in triage and no details were released on their condition.

The Omaha Public Power District reported nearly 10,000 customers were without power in the Omaha area. The number had dropped to about 7,300 by Friday night.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen posted on the social platform X that he had ordered state resources to be made available to help with the emergency response and to support first responders as they assess the damage.

“Nebraskans are no strangers to severe weather and, as they have countless times before, Nebraskans will help Nebraskans to rebuild,” Pillen said.

Daniel Fienhold, manager of the Pink Poodle Steakhouse in Crescent, Iowa, said he was outside watching the weather with his daughter and restaurant employees, recalling “it looked like a pretty big tornado was forming” northeast of town.

“It started raining, and then it started hailing, and then all the clouds started to kind of swirl and come together, and as soon as the wind started to pick up, that’s when I headed for the basement, but we never saw it,” Fienhold said.

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