Another pair of late rallies fell just short for the Fort Lewis College softball team in a doubleheader Saturday and a single game Sunday at the season-opening Desert Stinger in Las Vegas.
Cameron outlasted the Skyhawks 9-7 in the opener, and St. Cloud State snared a 10-6 victory over FLC in the nightcap Saturday. On Sunday, Fort Lewis spotted Minot State five runs in the third before falling short 5-4.
Sunday’s game saw Minot State score all five runs in the third inning by homering twice off FLC starting pitcher Kassie Haubert, who took the loss to fall to 1-1. Stephanie Janes, however, came in in relief and held Minot State scoreless from the third inning on.
The Skyhawks rallied behind Natalie Janes’ two-run homer in the fifth and Chelsea Rodriguez’s two-run homer in the sixth. The blast was Rodriguez’s third in five games to start the year. Despite the power surge, Fort Lewis had just four hits against 14 strikeouts in an uncharacteristically uneven offensive effort.
“I would like to see us producing runs without relying on the home run – having a good balance between the two (hits and home runs),” FLC head coach Kira Zeiter said.
Cameron built a 7-0 lead after 3½ innings and led 9-3 after five thanks to home runs by Leslie Martini, Sonia Foutch, and a pair from Tiffany Freeman.
Fort Lewis (1-4) finally broke through with its bats starting in the fourth. Haley Bolyard’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly got the Skyhawks on the board, and RBI walks from Rodriguez and Kaitlyn Bending added two more in the fifth.
Rodriguez, who was 3-for-3, drove in two more in the seventh with a home run, and Destinee DeHerrera had a two-run shot of her own before the Aggies closed the door. DeHerrera was 2-for-4, as was Erica Conley.
“Our bats are definitely something to be reckoned with, and it’s a strength that is nice to have,” Zeiter said.
Stephanie Janes took the loss in her first outing of the season, pitching three innings and allowing five runs, four earned, while walking none.
In the nightcap, Fort Lewis scored five runs in the first inning, led by Bolyard’s three-run homer and Kamali’i Peneku’s two-run shot, before St. Cloud State rallied for four in the bottom of the frame. The Huskies would go on to add three more runs in the third inning and three more in the fifth before FLC mustered one final run in the seventh.
Olivia Bergman, a freshman, took the loss in the circle for FLC, which started four different pitchers in the five games of the tournament. Bergman gave up seven runs on nine hits.
Zeiter said she wanted to use a wide array of pitchers to settle on a group that can flummox Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference foes during four-game weekend series.
“We play in the conference the same team four times in one weekend, so if you can have four different starters for each game, you’re going to be that much tougher to compete against because you can show a team so many different looks,” Zeiter said.
FLC will return to action starting Friday at the Grand Canyon University Invitational in Phoenix.
