A blowout and a squeak-out.
The Fort Lewis College women’s softball team split its Saturday doubleheader against Colorado Christian, losing 15-4 in Game 1 before squeezing out an eighth-inning 6-5 win in Game 2 at Aspen Field on the FLC campus.
For their win, the Skyhawks got a little help from a Colorado Christian mistake.
Kamali’i Peneku’s eighth-inning double got the Skyhawks on base in the bottom half of the eighth inning in a 5-all game, then a groundout advanced her to third base, and a Cougars’ error sent her home for the win.
“Got runners on and got ’em in. Kept it simple,” FLC head softball coach Kira Zeiter said.
Peneku finished with two hits, two runs and a single run batted in, while Erica Conley led FLC at the plate with three hits and one RBI.
The Cougars finished with three errors.
The Skyhawks took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning before the Cougars answered with a five-run fifth, aided by Alyssa Zimmerman’s grand slam.
“It can be a little bit of a shock,” Zeiter said of the grand slam. “We kept our heads right in the game and knew we could battle back because we’ve done it so many times before.”
FLC pulled within one with another pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, then pulled even in the sixth to set up the victory.
Victoria Johnson got the win from the strip, pitching eight innings with eight hits, five earned runs and two strikeouts.
But FLC didn’t get many breaks in the early game.
An eight-run third inning blew open a 10-4 lead for the Cougars, who added five more over the final two innings.
“They found a lot of holes and put some good swings on the ball,” Zeiter said. “And sometimes you find that consistency in your lineup and that’s what every coach looks for. You start with one good hit, and it turns into two and into three and into four.”
The Cougars tallied 17 hits total, 10 of them against Kassie Haubert, who took the loss pitching, giving up 10 runs, eight of them earned, over 3.1 innings.
Genevieve Reyna, meanwhile, pitched five innings for five hits and four earned runs for the win.
Missy Fundora and Mariah Stuart each tallied two hits for the Skyhawks, and Destinee DeHerrera hit a three-run homer on her lone hit in the first inning.
FLC (18-21, 16-18 RMAC) will host Colorado Christian in another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference doubleheader at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday at Aspen Field, the Skyhawks’ final games of the regular season.
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