Free passes and uncharacteristic miscues plagued the Fort Lewis College softball team in its Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament opener versus Regis University on Thursday.
The game started off similarly to the previous meetings with Regis, just four days before in the regular-season finale, with the Rangers getting ahead quickly. Regis benefited from two walks to bring the game’s first run across on a single to right field. Fort Lewis had an opportunity in the top of the second after Cat Rodman led off with a double. Heads-up defense by the Rangers, however, picked off the lead runner to hold the Skyhawks scoreless after a two-hit frame.
Regis doubled the lead in the second inning after loading the bases on two walks and a single. A sacrifice fly found the glove of Rodman in left, allowing the runner to tag up and score.
The teams went three-up, three-down in the following inning.
In the bottom of the fourth, another walk helped home team score again. The base runner advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and a fielding error, then eventually scored on another bobble in the infield to make it 3-0.
Making up for its previous misfortune, defense stepped it up in the fifth when Hailie Mann fielded a squeeze bunt and glove-flipped to Taylor Beaman at the dish to save a run from scoring. The Skyhawks got out of the inning with the score holding at 3-0. Jadyn Gilley and Sloan Shotton carded hits in the seventh, but a pair of infield pop-ups closed it out in a 3-0 final. Fort Lewis matched Regis with four hits, but the team struggled to find the clutch base knocks to bring runners home.
Fort Lewis (20-30) will now play in an elimination game at 12:30 p.m. Friday at the CMU Softball Stadium. The team will face off against the loser of Thursday evening’s Game 4 showdown between No. 1 Colorado Mesa and No. 4 Metropolitan State University Denver. Metro beat No. 5 UCCS 4-3 in its first-round game Thursday.
