By Loren Miller, USU Eastern Sports Information
In their final home series of the season, the Utah State Eastern softball team was swept by the #8 Salt Lake Community College Bruins on Friday and Saturday.
In game one, the Eagles held the high-powered Bruin offense to six runs, four runs below the Bruins’ average per game. Unfortunately, the Eagles could only come up with one run in game one when sophomore McKenzie Dorney hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. USU Eastern sophomore Carlye Levy gave up 10 hits and six runs in the circle for the Eagles.
In game two, the Eagles struggled defensively and lost 16-3.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Salt Lake’s offense exploded in the second and produced six runs. Salt Lake added eight more runs in the fourth inning with the help of a grand slam and a two-run home run. Sophomores Ashley Sweat and Jaiden Smith each had a hit and an RBI in game two to lead the team.
With Friday’s doubleheader sweep in the rearview mirror, the Eagles battled the Bruins in game three Saturday but came up short in the seventh inning and fell 9-7.
The Eagles trailed most of game three until the bottom of the sixth when the bats finally came alive. Trailing 4-1, a Taylor Passarella ground out with a runner at third made it a 4-2 game. Sophomore Rilee Stookey scored Passarella on an RBI triple to cut the lead to one.
A few at-bats later, the Eagles took a 6-4 lead after a Smith three-run home run. Salt Lake came back in the top of the seventh with five runs of their own to take a 9-6 lead. In the bottom of the seventh, the Eagles tried to force extra innings but fell short with only scoring one more run off a solo home run from Avery Blackhurst.
“SLCC is the number one team and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy going in, but they still showed some fight even when they were down,” said USU Eastern softball coach Mary Hart.
In the final game of the series, the Eagles were shut down by SLCC’s pitcher Tarni Stepto, who threw a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts and two walks. On offense, the Bruins put up nine runs to end the game in five innings with a score of 9-0.
The four losses against the Bruins puts the Eagles at 12-27 overall and 10-17 in conference play.
“I think even though we did lose, we had some good plays against a very strong team. They never really gave up they kept trying and I think that’s something that’s going to keep us going,” said Hart.
With two more road series left on the schedule, one in Henderson and one in Twin Falls, Hart believes the team can get better and be ready for the conference tournament in May.
“I think if we keep playing like we have been, we should finish the season of strong and do well come tournament,” said Hart.
The Eagles will travel to Henderson next for a four-game series against the College of Southern Nevada. CSN is currently two games ahead of the Eagles in the loss column, making the series critical for conference tournament seeding. All four games in Henderson will be broadcast on the Scenic West Digital Network at scenicwestnetwork.com.
photos by Jeff Barrett