SPOKANE, Wash. – On Diana Marks Field, the Puget Sound softball team scored five runs in the fifth inning to lead the Loggers to a 5-3 victory against Whitworth University on Saturday afternoon.
Game 1: Puget Sound 5, Whitworth 3
The Loggers had five runs on eight hits, while the Whitworth Pirates only managed three runs on eight hits.
Puget Sound seemed to struggle defensively, in the first four innings with just three hits, allowing Whitworth to take an early lead.
Then in the fifth inning,
Kimora Phillips led the five-run stride with a single down the left line followed by singles from Aislynn O'Reilly and
Hope Fleischman to advance the first two runs. A double from
Claire Besancon brought in the final three to take a 5-3 lead.
In the later innings, Puget Sound's defense tightened up, preventing Whitworth from scoring any further runs despite some opportunities. The Pirates were close to scoring in the bottom of the seventh when the first batter was walked, followed by an error from the Loggers. The next two batters reached on fielder's choice, but ended their luck in a fly out to right field.
O'Reilly pitched 6.0 innings for three strikeouts and just two earned runs.
Game 2: Puget Sound 1, Whitworth 7
Puget Sound started strong in the top of the first inning with Phillips drawing a walk, but their momentum quickly stalled as Hope Fleischman and Mikayla Johnson both failed to reach base, ending the inning with no runs scored.
Whitworth responded with a quiet bottom of the first, the Loggers retired all three batters without allowing a hit or a run.
In the bottom of the third, Whitworth took advantage of an early error from Puget Sound, scoring four runs on four hits and stealing two bases. The Loggers responded with a single from Johnson after Fleischman reached first on an error by the second baseman. Once again, Besancon scored one runner in on a single to center field.
Whitworth added another run in the bottom of the 6th inning, extending their lead to 6-1 with aggressive baserunning and capitalizing on a wild pitch.
In the top of the 7th, Puget Sound attempted a rally with a hit, but they couldn't convert it into any runs as they fell short in their final inning.
The Loggers will finish the series with Whitworth University tomorrow, April 14, starting at 11 a.m. on Diana Marks Field
