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OGDEN, Utah – The Idaho State softball team advanced to the championship for the second time in the last three years but fell 4-2 to No. 1 Weber State in what became its final game of the season.
Senior Kate Marquez and junior
Sarah Hayes led the Bengals in the championship game, registering two hits and one run each. Marquez added two put outs, while senior
Maddy Hickman finished with eight POs in the final game of her career.
Idaho State (28-23) played solid defense to start the game as it prevented Weber State (36-17) from a scoring a single run through the first three innings. The Wildcats broke the drought in the bottom of the fourth, scoring two runs, first off a sacrifice fly to right field and again following a strong single to left field. The Bengals prevented another score and headed into the top of the fifth facing a 2-0 deficit.
Idaho State returned the favor in the top of the fifth as Marquez smashed one to right field, good for a double but advanced to third following a Weber State error on the play. Next up was Hayes, who connected for a single to left field resulting in ISU's first run. Immediately following Hayes single, junior
Kacie Burnett tripled to left field allowing Hayes to advance to home for the second run of the day. Hickman popped up to center field to end the inning with the score tied 2-all.
Weber State scored twice more, once in the bottom of the fifth and again in the bottom of the sixth for the 4-2 lead heading into the seventh and final inning. It was three-up, three-down for the Bengals, giving Weber State the 4-2 championship win and automatic berth to the women's softball college world series.
"[Against Weber State], I thought we competed; we fell behind, but man we competed and answered right back," Head Coach
Candi Letts said. "We had an unfortunate mistake, and then they capitalized on it. That is one thing that Weber does well is that they capitalize on your mistakes because they can. They have so much speed and they have good power. But we battled toe-to-toe with them today considering how poorly we played against them yesterday."
The Bengals advanced to the championship following a 7-4 win over No. 2 Sacramento State (26-22) Saturday morning. Idaho State fell behind early as the Hornets scored off a double in the bottom of the first to take the early 1-0 lead. Both teams went scoreless until the top of the fifth inning.
After a quick strikeout to start the inning, ISU's
Alex Portesi walked to get on base. Next up was
Aubrey Creekmore who got on base following a nicely placed bunt, advancing Portesi to second. Another walk for the Bengals loaded the bases and Marquez stepped up big for ISU, connecting for a three-run triple to center field to put ISU up 3-1.
The Bengals surrendered one run to Sac State in the bottom of the fifth, and another three-run inning in the top of the sixth put ISU up 6-2. The Hornets scored twice more in the bottom of the sixth, but ISU sealed the win in the top of the seventh. Marquez once again connected for a triple, this time to left field. Two batters later, Burnett singled for the RBI and seventh run of the day. A scoreless bottom of the seventh for Sac State gave ISU the win and a shot at the Big Sky conference tournament title.
"We built some momentum, and we were just relaxed and played hard," Letts said. "We just went in there and really played hard and put it on the line. We were very fortunate that Kate Marquez and
Kacie Burnett had a great game. Sara Hayes had a great game at the plate and just really gave us that energy in the start, and everybody just followed suit after that."
Senior
Sophie Slagle, Portesi, Burnett and Marquez were all named to the all-tournament team. Weber State's Aubrey Whitmer was named MVP of the tournament.
All-Tournament Team
Aubrey Whitmer, WSU
McKinley Brinkerhoff, WSU
Sara Hingsberger, WSU
Molly Horne, WSU
Sophie Slagle, ISU
Alex Portesi, ISU
Kacie Burnett, ISU
Katelyn Marquez, ISU
Shelby Johnson, SAC
Jessica Ravetti, SAC
Zamari Hinton, SAC
Sydney Stites, UM
Alex Wardlow, UM
Delene Colburn, UM
Megan Reed, SUU
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