April 10, 2009
Box Score
Box Score - Game 1: Idaho State 5, Seattle 2
Box Score - Game 2: Idaho State 8, Seattle 3
Pocatello, ID --- Jessica Baca gave ISU's new manually operated scoreboard quite a workout, hitting a home run in each game and driving in six total runs, three in each game as the Bengals swept the Seattle Redhawks 5-2 and 8-3 in the first of two weekend doubleheaders, as the two teams will meet again for a doubleheader starting at 10:00 am on Saturday morning at Rainey Park.
Baca's two homers put her season total to eight, and Heather Dixon's record of 12 is now in sight with nine games left in the season. Also, Baca's six runs batted in gave her 29 for the year, tying the single season record held by Robin Hamilton, who had 29 back in 1979.
Game one did not start out well for ISU as the first four hitters reached base for Seattle, who will be in the Mountain Division of the Pacific Coast Softball Conference in 2010 along with Idaho State. With the bases loaded, Lisa Hill singled home two runs, and it was 2-0 with yet an out to be recorded, but from there, starter Kandis Clesson got settled down, and then got into a groove. She struck out the next four batters, and retired 13 of the next 14 batters, the only one, Jamie Foote, reaching on a walk and then getting gunned down on a steal attempt by Whitney Chaffe.
That groove allowed ISU to stay in the game, and finally solve Kelsey Reynolds, who held ISU to one hit through three innings. In the fifth though, ISU broke through. Cristin Martin singled, and her pinch runner Kaylie Neal-Jones eventually scored on a two-out single by Megan Miller after advancing on a Caitlin McGrath single earlier. Baca then came up and deposited a 3-2 pitch over the 225 sign in dead center, hitting a tree on the river embankment, making it 4-2. ISU added an insurance run in the sixth when Merissa Jannsen singled and then scored when Neal-Jones did likewise.
Clesson, who allowed only one hit from innings two through six, allowed a pair of hits in the seventh, bringing the tying run to the plate, but Katie Peterson grounded out to end the game.
Cristin Martin earned the win in game two for ISU, pitching four innings and allowing only an unearned run. ISU got on the board in the first with an unearned run on a single by McGrath, who moved up on a passed ball and then scored on a Miller single. ISU made it 4-0 in the third on a Baca RBI ground out and a two-run single by Jennifer Martensen, which broke the rookie's 0-for-14 drought.
Martin danced in and around trouble for four innings, stranding seven runners in four innings. The only run came when Jodie Schmehr hit a double off the wall in center field, and then took third after Miller bobbled the ball, and she eventually scored on a pinch hit single from Kate Zender.
ISU responded with an unearned run of their own right back in the fourth to make it 5-1, and then Clesson came on in relief of Martin, but she immediately got into trouble, she opened the inning by walking Foote, hitting pinch hitter Lauren Carlson, and then walking Lauren Berin. After a strikeout a run scored on a groundout and then Peggy Mathison singled home another to make it 5-3. Clesson got out of further trouble by striking out pinch hitter Heather Hansen.
With the game 5-3, Baca went to work again, this time with a two-run homer to center field to make it 7-3. Brittany Olsin's sacrifice fly made it 8-3, and Clesson then stranded three in the sixth and got the side in order in the seventh for her first save of the season.
Clesson improved to 11-11 with the win, two wins away from the school record for wins in a season, and Martin jumped to 3-7. Baca's three RBI in each game gives her eight multi-RBI games this season. McGrath had three hits on the day, including one in each game to run her hitting streak to six straight, and 18 of 19, with only a questionable error at BYU keeping her from a 19-game hitting streak. Miller had four hits on the day for ISU, putting her at 43 for the year, four away from surpassing Chris Shoemaker's school record of 46 set in 1979.
NOTES: Miller's average jumped to .377 for the year ... Clesson's save was just the ninth in school history ... this is ISU's first three-game winning streak of the year, and their first three-game winning streak over Division I schools since 1982 when ISU beat Utah, Southern Utah, and Weber State to open the season.
