Softball destroys CNCC, drops all four games to SLCC Bruins

The USU Eastern Lady Eagles looked to bounce back in Conference play as they played host to the Colorado Northwestern Community College Lady Spartans and the Salt Lake Community College Lady Bruins. 

The weekend of March 13 and 14, the Lady Eagles put on a hitting clinic, outscoring the Lady Spartans 95-20. Leading the charge for the Eagles was Morgan Tanner, who was named the SWAC player of the week after having an .800 batting average, 14 runs, 18 RBI’s and 7 homeruns. The Eagles pitching was phenomenal, lead by Nyah Deryke, Emma Marchant, Grace Jenkins and Madie Luck. 

In games one and two, the Lady Eagles dominated, winning both games by the score of 24-4. Nyah Deryke started in the circle for USU Eastern in game one, and Emma Marchant in game two. The Lady Eagles played solid defense to back up fantastic pitching by Deryke and Marchant, who had great command of their pitches and controlled the strike zone. The Eagles dominated early in both games as they built very commanding leads in both games by the end of the second inning. Morgan Tanner lead the charge for the Lady Eagles as she tallied 5 homeruns between the two games. Alex Deming, Marissa Bowman and Josie Hiatt provided great support from the plate as the Lady Eagles won both games very convincingly.

In games three and four, the USU Eastern Lady Eagles continued their dominance as they took the games 20-10 and 27-2. Nyah Deryke  and Madie Luck threw very well as they got the starts in games three and four. Grace Jenkins, Malorie Luck, and Emma Marchant did phenomenal jobs out of the bullpen for the Lady Eagles. Marissa Bowman and Morgan Tanner continued their hot streaks at the plate, notching multiple hits each, including 2 homeruns each in game four. Jenna Sutliff, Minerva Cruz, and Shayna Alofipo added multiple hits as the Lady Eagles had a total of 40 hits between the two games. 

The weekend of March 19 and 20, the Lady Eagles welcomed in the No. 2 ranked Salt Lake Community Lady Bruins. The Eagles put up a good fight against the Bruins, but unfortunately fell short in their 4 games. The Eagles were swept by the Bruins 4-0. When asked about the games, Freshman second baseman Jenna Sutliff said, “Things didn’t turn out how we wanted this weekend, however, there’s a lot of takeaways. To know we were competing with the No. 2 team in the nation is crazy, but we aren’t satisfied with that. We’re on an uphill climb and we’re hungry. We learned a lot this weekend which is only going to help us here on out in conference”.

The final scores were:

USUE 6, SLCC 8

USUE 5, SLCC 10

USUE 8, SLCC 18

USUE 5, SLCC 16

The Lady Eagles fought hard, led by great hitting by Marisa Bowman and pitching by Madie Luck, Emma Marchant and Nyah Deryke. 

The Eagles will continue conference play next weekend as they head to Henderson, Nevada as they take on the College of Southern Nevada Coyotes.