Too little, too late: Softball team rallies in sixth, but UC Santa Barbara wins
The first time the Utah State softball team faced Jennifer Davis this weekend, the Aggies shelled the Santa Barbara pitcher, scoring nine runs on seven hits to beat UCSB 9-2.
But the second time around things were different.
Allowing three runs in six innings and striking out 12, the Gaucho ace showed why she leads in the Big West Conference in most statistical categories.
“There’s not much you can do when a kid is on like that,” USU head coach Lonny Sargent said. “The best you can do is hope to contain her a little bit.”
The Aggies had trouble containing Davis on either side of the inning, however, as she went 2-for-2 with a home run en route to an 11-3 win, her eleventh this year.
Aggie Kelly Leos said USU might have been too confident in its second outing against Davis.
“She was throwing the same as she threw yesterday,” she said. “We might have thought that since we scored nine runs off her yesterday … we kind of sat back and were waiting for it to happen.”
Behind a 2-for-4, three RBI effort from leftfielder Jessia Hejna, the Gauchos put up three runs in the third, two in the second and five in the sixth to cement the victory.
Davis shut out the Aggies for five complete innings, but the USU bats got going in the bottom of the sixth.
“We fight hard,” Leos said. “We could just come out and say, ‘We’re going to get run ruled. Let’s go home.’ But we don’t.”
After Michelle Vlahos struck out, outfielder Sara Fleming singled through the left side of the infield.
Then Heather Haak knocked a pinch-hit single to center. Quela Leonhardt then doubled to center, driving in two runs.
“We try to fire it up as much as we can and give confidence to the people who are up to bat so they know that they can do it,” Leonhardt said.
With Leonhardt on base, Leos doubled to right to drive in the third Aggie run of the game.
But Davis would settle down, striking out Jessica Garnett and Amy Schaible for the win.
“We need to come out and be more consistent,” Leos said. “We’d have random hits, but when we string them together we can score runs.”
With the loss, the Aggies drop to 10-23 overall and 2-10 in BWC play. The Gauchos improved to 19-14, 5-4.
The Aggies now prepare for a game against the University of Utah Wednesday in Salt Lake City.
Sargent said the late-inning offense should serve as a confidence booster heading into the game against the Utes.
“It was big,” Leonhardt said. “It instilled confidence in us. We do know how to hit and we can score runs.”
Wednesday’s game against Utah starts at 3 p.m. in Salt Lake.
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USU´s Kelly Leos makes a catch at first base for the out during Saturday´s doubleheader with UC Santa Barbara. The Ags won the first game 9-2. (Photo by John Zsiray)