Utah State softball defeats Montana in mid-week doubleheader
Utah State softball victoriously hosted its doubleheader against the University of Montana on Wednesday.
The Aggies defeated the Grizzlies 9-6 in game one and 7-6 in game two to complete the sweep.
“Mid-week games are fun, especially when you have two. These are two big victories for us as we keep chasing our first winning season in 20 years. These were big wins for us. We’ve kept our momentum going,” said Utah State head coach Steve Johnson. “As always, there are things we have to clean up, but we’ll walk out of here with two W’s and get ready for San José State. Winning feels good. It’s contagious and we’ll continue to build on it.”
Game one was close, and had only two scoreless innings for the Aggies.
April Brown started off pitching for the Aggies for the first inning and a half, soon giving up the mound to Noelle Johnson, who proceeded to hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning and ended the game with a walk-off strikeout.
“When I hit my homerun, coach just looked at me and said ‘you either win it or we’re losing,’” Noelle Johnson said. “I live well off of that kind of pressure.”
USU led the first game with a total of 13 hits while Montana tallied 11. USU followed up in game two with 9 hits as Montana racked up 15.
Katie Schroeder started at pitcher for Utah State in game two and pitched for a total of four and a half innings, handing the ball off to Noelle Johnson to finish the game.
The Aggie offense stepped up to the plate in game two with two home runs hit by Alleyah Armendariz, and another launched over the fence by Paxton Provost.
“We have a really good offensive team and we put a lot of pressure on other teams, which makes it easier for us to pull out a win,” said Armendariz. “We’ve been working on our hitting this year and it’s nice to know that we know how to adjust in between pitches.”
Armendariz said that her biggest competition on offense is Noelle Johnson.
“She’s a good table-setter,” Armendariz said. “So is Chow (Sarah) and so is Namba (Kirstyn), usually. We have a pretty solid top of the lineup.”
Noelle Johnson, who was named America First Credit Union USU Student-Athlete of the Week for the week of March 28th to April 3rd, came out of both games against the Grizzlies as the winning pitcher.
“The pitcher for the second game was a pretty good pitcher. She kept me off balance for sure and I was frustrated,” Noelle Johnson said. “When I got called in to pitch I had to tell myself to separate the two. I couldn’t let my hitting in the second game affect my pitching.”
The Aggies managed the 14 innings against Montana completely errorless.
This weekend, USU softball hosts their first Mountain West series at the LaRee and LeGrand Johnson field against San Jose State starting on Friday at 3 p.m.
“We’re doing really well,” Noelle Johnson said. “Everyone is really excited to play at home again to start conference here this weekend.”
—kenna.cook@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @kennaacook