April 25, 2009
Box Score
Game One - Idaho State 7, Utah Valley 4
Game Two - Idaho State 9, Utah Valley 8
Pocatello, ID --- The folks at Disney might have laughed if the whole premise of Saturday's doubleheader sweep. Yet, it was the improbable that was the order of the day for Idaho State as Krista Armstrong hit her first career home run in game one to push ISU to a 7-4 win, and then she scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh after Kaylie Neal-Jones hit her first homer earlier in the game as ISU won 9-8 in walk-off fashion.
The two wins gave Idaho State 20 for the season, marking just the third time in school history ISU has won 20, behind the 25 wins in 1979 and 21 in 1982.
It looked like it was going to be easy against Utah Valley as the Bengals opened the game with four runs in the first inning of game one. The big blow came after a bases loaded walk to Jessica Baca as Merissa Jannsen hit a two run single. Senior Whitney Chaffe also drew a bases loaded walk to make it 4-0.
After UVU (16-27) got two back in the fourth, Armstrong came up in the fifth with two outs, and deposited a Jessica Martin pitch into "The Black Hole" behind the manual scoreboard for a 6-2 lead. The teams then traded runs before a hectic seventh inning that ISU barely got out of.
Down 7-3, the first three hitters for Utah Valley reached as Megan Kisner hit a pinch single and and Samantha Telarroja also singled. Cherlyn McGraw then reached on an error to load them up with none out. Starter Kandis Clesson coaxed two pop outs before former Bengal Amber Sackett single to make it 7-4. Kylee Steadman then hit a dying quail into short left, but shortstop Jessica Baca dove and caught the ball for the final out, or so ISU thought. The play was originally ruled a hit, but after a conference, it was determined she did catch the ball, and only dropped it when pulling it out of her glove to show the umpire, ending the game.
In game two, it came down to a tie game in the seventh with ISU's three seniors up first, and all delivered beautifully. First, Armstrong laced a clean single up the middle, and Neal-Jones followed with a four-pitch walk. Sackett came on in relief of Martin, and faced ISU's third senior Chaffe, who sacrificed both runners into scoring position. Caitlin McGrath walked to load the bases, and UVU brought the infield and outfield in for Brittany Olsin. Olsin hit Sackett's first pitch to Niemann at second base, and the ball went right through her legs for a run-scoring error, giving ISU the win.
It was the Wolverines who jumped out in the first, scoring three on a bases loaded Sackett double, but Clesson held the Wolverines from adding on, but they made it 5-0 in the second when Megan Niemann singled home a pair. ISU cut it to 5-2 in the third when Megan Miller tripled with two outs and scored on a single by Baca. She then came around on a Jennifer Martensen double.
Both teams tacked on single runs in the fourth, and ISU was down 6-3 and down to their final seven outs when Kaylie Neal-Jones came up with two out and two on. Hitting just .080 for the season to that point, she crushed Jessica Martin's first offering deep over left-center for an improbable three-run homer, her first since 2007, tying the game at 6-6.
Utah Valley got two of those right back in the top of the sixth when third baseman Jessica Anderson rocked a double to left center to score Sackett and Steadman. However, ISU once again came back, tying it again in the sixth. Brittany Olsin homered with one out to make it 8-7, and then Miller tripled again, her school-record tying sixth of the year, and she scored when Baca singled her home.
Clesson pitched every inning of both games in getting both wins, running her school record for the season to 16. She also struck out 11 on the day, giving her a school record 146 for the season. Megan Miller had four hits for the Bengals on the day, including two triples. McGrath had a single in each game to finish the season with a 15-game hitting streak, but she missed in her quest for .400, hitting .397 for the year. Krista Armstrong had three hits, Neal-Jones had one, and Chaffe drove in a run as well as ISU finished the season 20-21.
NOTES: Idaho State finished the season 10-6 against future Pacific Coast Softball Conference foes ... Neal-Jones played first base for the first time this season ... Baca finished the year with 38 RBIs, and Miller had 17 extra base hits ... McGrath finished with 58 hits for the school record for a season, barely nipping Miller's 56 ... Emily Hu, who hit under .200 last year, finished at .336, and Armstrong finished at .291 for the year ... ISU finished 8-3 at home.
