April 21, 2009
Box Score
Game One: Boise State 9, Idaho State 3
Game Two: Boise State 7, Idaho State 3
Pocatello, ID --- Idaho State University softball couldn't get a timely hit, but Boise State certainly did as the Broncos swept the Bengals 9-3 and 7-3 at Rainey Park, giving the Broncos a 20-win season in their first season back as a program while Idaho State dropped to 18-21.
The star for the Bengals was Caitlin McGrath who extended her hitting streak to 13 games with five hits on the day, going 5-for-8 with a double. However it wasn't nearly enough as Boise State scored 16 runs in the two games. In game one, with the score 1-1, pitcher Allie Crump deposited a Kandis Clesson offering into the Black Hole, the area just behind the manual scoreboard, for a three-run homer and a 4-1 fifth inning lead.
BSU then put it away with a five-run seventh keyed by a pair of two-run singles. ISU got two back in the bottom half, but they never threatened to tie the game.
In game two, BSU then jumped on Cristin Martin for four runs in just 3.1 innings before Clesson had to relieve. ISU was down that same 4-1 in the fifth when Megan Miller laced a two-run double to put runners on second and third with two outs and cut the lead down to 4-3, but Jessica Baca grounded to second to end the threat. BSU then answered with three unearned runs in the sixth to put the game away.
Idaho State finishes out their schedule on Saturday at noon when they host Utah Valley in the doubleheader on senior day, which will be the final games for Kaylie Neal-Jones, Whitney Chaffe, and Krista Armstrong.
NOTES: McGrath is now batting .406 for the year and needs to go 3-for-9 on Saturday to bat .400 for the year ... ISU allowed two home runs, the first two homers by the visitors this year ... while the team nicknamed the scoreboard Big Black, Steven Olveda, BSU's softball media director, gets credited for homers dropping over the scoreboard as being hit into "The Black Hole" ... Idaho State is ranked in the top 100 nationally in hitting, and raised their average to .281 ... the nine earned runs allowed by Clesson in game one were the most since allowing nine in just 3.2 innings against Utah Valley ... Clesson hit two more batters to run her total to 21 ... Brittany Olsin extended her hitting streak to six games, and McGrath and Miller now both have 16 multi-hit games this season.
