The Cougar softball team played in the Capital Classic over the weekend in Sacramento, Calif. The Cougars played six games in three days without their center fielder Monica Gonzales, who did not travel because of a family funeral.
“We were able to avoid anymore injuries this weekend and stay in one piece which was great for the team,” coach Gordon Eakin said.
The Cougars struggled on the first day of play, falling to both Iowa and Minnesota. Iowa kept BYU scoreless winning 4-0. Hawkeye’s pitcher, Brittany Weil struck out 15 of the 28 batters she faced. The Cougars struggled to get timely hits as they left seven runners on base through the course of the game.
The Cougars fell 5-2 to Minnesota in the second game, which was not technically part of the Capital Classic tournament.
On Friday the Cougars squared off with the host team, Sacramento State, in the first game. Both teams put one run on the scoreboard in the first inning and the score would remain 1-1 till the seventh when Jodi Norton hit a home-run, and Angeline Quiocho drove in two runs giving the Cougars the edge going into the bottom of the seventh. The Hornets answered with three runs of their own sending the game into extra innings.
Jennifer Whiteley made it to third base in the eighth and then scored the game-winning run on Emi Snow’s sacrifice fly to center, giving the Cougars a 5-4 victory and a 2-0 record in games going into extra innings.
Cal Poly shut out the Cougars winning 2-0 on Friday afternoon. Whiteley hit 3-3, but it wasn’t enough to help the Cougars.
The Cougars ended the tournament nicely with back-to-back victories on Saturday. They first defeated Mercer 10-1, scoring in every inning but the third. Cortney Nix-Clark had a game high four RBI’s, while Whiteley, Andrea Ramirez and Stephanie Platt each put two runs on the board.
In the last game against Santa Clara, the Cougars went into the seventh inning trailing 5-1. They came back as Urincho hit a two-RBI double and Whiteley hit a single sending home Jana Anderson. Then Whiteley and Platt scored off a throwing error by Bronco’s shortstop giving the Cougars the clutch win.
“We started out slow, but then finally started to play the way we should and we were able to win three of our last four,” Eakin said.
The Cougars will now prepare to travel out to Arizona next weekend for the Diamond Devil Invitational, March 22-24.
