POCATELLO, Idaho – Idaho State softball won games one and two of the series with Montana Friday in -Missoula. The Bengals took game one 7-6 and game two 10-1 in six innings.
"I loved the way our team came out and fought today," said Head Coach Andrew Rich. "They battled through a lot of adversity in that first game to pull out a win and then kept the momentum rolling into game two. Haley and Emma were great today in the circle. Two great starts and both battled and attacked hitters. Emma was especially great in the second game. She did a nice job of getting weaker contact and going right at them. It was a lot of fun to watch those two work today."
Game 1 | ISU 7 – UM 6
Idaho State softball started day of the series with the Montana Griz picking up a win over the Big Sky Conference Foe. The Bengals (18-19, 2-5 BSC) defeated The Griz 7-6 in Missoula, Mont. Friday afternoon.
ISU set the tone of the game early. In the first, Rheanne Lewis reached on a walk, Isabel Cargill advanced Lewis to second on a single to short.
With two on, Skylar Sethman hit a rope down the left field line scoring Lewis to take a 1-0 lead. The next batter, Frankie Tago, hit a sacrifice fly to center scoring Cargill and giving the Bengals a 2-0 lead at the end of the top of the first.
The Griz tied the game up in the bottom of the second and the two teams went into the 3rd an even 2-2.
The Bengals turned on the gas in the 3rd. After Cargill and Cano reached, Sethman made it safe to first on a bunt that the Griz couldn't corral to load the bases.
In a stroke of good luck for the Bengals, Mailee Newman hit a Sac Fly to bring in Cano. The Griz defense made throwing errors as the Bengals advanced and Sethman was able to slide in safely for a 4-2 Bengal Lead.
The Griz cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the 3rd and the two teams went to the 4th with a one-run Bengal lead.
With one out in the top of the 4th and Brook Richards on base, Cano hammered her 10th homerun of the season over the right field wall to extend the Bengal lead to 6-3. Cano now is tied for sixth all-time in the ISU record book for homeruns in a season.
Both defenses held strong in the fifth.
The Bengals put another run on the board as Newman hit another sacrifice fly to up the Bengal lead to 7-3.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Griz made its comeback push scoring three runs to cut the Bengal lead to just one run at 7-6.
Facing a strong Montana team, the Bengals defense came out fierce in the bottom of the 7th holding off the Griz offensive push and ending the game with the ISU 7-6 win.
Haley Rainey picked up her 11th win of the season allowing six runs on 11 hits with eight strikeouts.
Cargill led the Bengals with three hits scoring one run. Seven other Bengals combined for the Bengals 10 hits in game one.
Game 2 | ISU 10 – UM 1
Coming off of a tight game one finish the Bengals had the opposite result in game two as the Orange and Black routed the Griz 10-1 in six innings.
"Our offense was great from top to bottom today," continued Rich. "We had great at bats all day long. We were super aggressive on the bases. We put a lot of pressure on them and never let them have easy innings which is a big goal of ours. We scored in the first inning in both games and I think that played a huge role in us getting the offense going like we did."
Emma McMurray dazzled in the circle for the Bengals as she picked up her fifth win of the season. McMurray only allowed one run on just four hits as she also fanned four Griz batters.
The Bengal offense was on a roll recording a team-season high in hits with 16.
Idaho State wasted no time getting started in game two. Lewis hit a single to second base and Cano opened up her game with a double down the left-field line scoring Lewis and giving the Bengals the 1-0 lead.
After Cano stole third, Frankie Tago hit the second double of the inning and brought Cano home making it 2-0. Newman followed it up with a single to center giving the Bengals the 3-0 lead after ½ inning of play.
Facing her first batter of the day, McMurray set the tone early, striking out the first batter she faced in four pitches. The Bengal defense took care of the other two outs and the team moved on.
The Bengals opened it up in the third. Sethman walked and Frankie Tago followed it up with a single to center. With two on, Newman hit in her second RBI of the game, a double down the left line. The Bengals led 4-0.
Morgan Hess then hit a sac fly to center and the Bengals went up 5-0. Lewis tacked on another RBI hit and Gracie Smit scored on a throwing error to send the Bengals into the bottom of the 3rd up 7-1 on the Griz.
The fourth and fifth innings let the Bengal defense find its stride allowing only one Griz batter to reach base in both innings.
With an ending in sight, the Bengals went into the sixth looking to close out the game. Sethman doubled to left field and Tago drew a walk.
For the third at bat in the game, Newman connected for some RBIs, this time with a three-run blast over the left-field wall. The Bengals had a 10-1 lead and only needed to close out the bottom of the inning to earn the run-rule victory.
The Bengal defense held strong with runners on base in the bottom of the sixth and got the final outs to win the game 10-1.
In six innings, McMurray and the Bengal defense held the Griz to .190 batting average while the Bengals averaged a massive .500 average, going 16 of 32. The Bengals especially picked it up with runners on, hitting .579 with runners on and .571 with runners in scoring position.
Lewis picked up her 52nd hit of the season as she went three-of-five .
Mailee Newman had a team season high five RBIs on three hits with a double and a home run.
Between the two games, the Bengals racked up 26 hits and 17 runs scored.
The two teams play one final game tomorrow at 1:00 PM to close out the series.
