Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
No. Colo. (Swing for Life Day)
Wildcats split PCSC twinbill with Bears
4/17/2011 2:52:00 AM | Softball
OGDEN, Utah -- With their bats finally heating up, the Wildcats earned a split on Saturday afternoon.
The Weber State University softball team cranked out 24 hits across two games against Northern Colorado at Wildcat Softball Field as the Wildcats and Bears battled fiercely for 16 innings.
Weber State garnered 11 hits in a narrow 7-6 loss in the day's opening game, and then pounded out 13 in a nail-biting 3-2 game that went nine innings in the end-cap.
Senior Britinie Hardine had a strong showing getting three hits and five RBIs over the two games, including a pressure-packed RBI single in the top of the seventh inning in the second game that rallied Weber State into a 2-2 tie with two outs.
Hardine also picked up the win in that second game, her team-best fourth of the season, as she moved to 4-3 on the year. Overall in the two games, Hardine pitched five innings, scattering two hits and running her streak of appearances without an earned run to 10 consecutive spanning 17.1 innings.
Junior Erika James had four hits and scored three runs with two stolen bases on the afternoon, while Brooke Silva, Shaila Rivers and Symbree Minniear each had three hits.
Weber State (2-6 Pacific Coast, 9-27 overall) led 1-0 in the first inning of game one, but Northern Colorado rallied with three in the bottom half of the inning, one more in the second and two more in the fifth to take a 6-1 lead. The Wildcats made it 6-2 in the fifth, but again the Bears answered to make it 7-2.
WSU scored two in the sixth to cut it to 7-4 and them made it 7-6 in the seventh with runners still on, but couldn't get final run across the plate to complete the rally.
The second game of the day was a nail-biter from the start. UNC took a 1-0 lead in the second, with Weber State rallying in the fourth to make it 1-1.
The Bears regained the lead on Megan Wilkinson's solo home run in the sixth.
Down to the what could've been the final out of the game, James got on with a single to third base, followed by a Rivers' single to shortstop, bringing Hardine to the plate.
Hardine hit an RBI single to left field that scored James and knotted things up at 2-2.
In the ninth, Kami Johnson singled down the right field line and then moved to second on a single by Rivers. Lyndsey Minnich hit a two-out single to center field that brought Johnson the across the plate to put Weber State in the lead.
Northern Colorado threatened after Megan Hamilton doubled to start the bottom half of the inning and then was moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, but Hardine forced a pop up to second base and a fly out to center field to end the game.
Weber State will faced step out of conference play on Monday for a doubleheader against Boise State. The two-game series against the Broncos was originally scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., but has been moved up to a 1 p.m. start at Wildcat Softball Field.
