Softball finishes home season

This archived article was written by: Angelique Lokeni

m finished out their last series of home games going 0-4 against Salt Lake Community College the weekend of April 14 and 15.
In the first game on Friday, the Eagles defense held the Bruins at zero for the first three innings and led 1-0 after freshman Siearrah Anderson hit a solo homerun off of the Bruins’ sophomore pitcher Addie Jensen. Anderson finished the game with two homeruns and two RBI’s.
The Bruins pushed back and managed to score four runs in each of the next three innings. Eagles defense struggled and the Bruins won the first game 13-3 by the 10 run-rule.
The Eagles started the second game much stronger facing the Bruins’ Australian sophomore pitcher Chantelle Ladner, as well as freshman pitcher Bryce Taylor, racking up an 8-3 lead in the third inning. However, the Bruins refused to roll over and came back scoring four runs, making the score 8-7. Sophomore Mateah Tuckett came to bat in the bottom of the third and hit her first-career homerun, giving the Eagles more room to work with an 11-7 lead.
The Bruins came back the next inning and scored 14 runs, capitalizing off of errors and homeruns. The Eagles pushed three more runs across and freshmen Allyssa Garcia, McKayla King, Angelique Lokeni, and Parker Fronk all had two RBI’s, but SLCC ultimately won game two 25-14.
Saturday’s games began with SLCC racking up an eight-run lead in the first inning of game three. The Eagles allowed 19-runs total in the first three innings, of which five were homeruns, and only scored one run in the first four-innings.
Though the Eagles managed to come back and score four more runs making the score, 21-5, ultimately game three got away from them and SLCC took home another win.
Game four of the series was the only game to be played a full seven innings. The Eagles were down 3-1 until the bottom of the fifth when Tuckett hit a two-run homer to tie the game.
About her two dingers, Tuckett said, “I was surprised at first, then I was so excited I couldn’t contain myself and almost passed the runner in front of me! I have to keep it up though, my mom promised me a trip to Disneyland if I hit good this season.”
Freshman Madison Blauer also had a good game with two RBI’s and two hits in game four, as well as being a huge presence in the outfield with multiple standing and diving catches to help the Eagles’ defense.
Sophomore pitcher for the Eagles, Kali Thomson, also helped her defense out by coming in and keeping the Bruins off balance, as well as striking out one of their most powerful hitters, Madison Sisco. Sisco is a sophomore who currently has one of the highest batting averages in the conference, so she was a big out for the Eagles.
Thomson is coming back from a shoulder injury that will require surgery after this season ends and hasn’t been seeing much time on the field, so this was a big out for her as well as for her team. “Honestly, it built my confidence up to find out who she was afterwards and realizing what I’m capable of by striking out a hitter like her.”
Unfortunately the game got away from the Eagles in the sixth inning when, after leading 4-3, the Bruins pushed six runs across. The Eagles were unable to force more runs of their own in the following two innings and SLCC took their final win for the series with a score of 9-4. This makes the Eagles record 3-25 with three weeks left of regular conference games. The remainder of the Eagles softball games will played away sat CSN, CSI and Snow, respectively.