Box Score GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Fort Lewis College softball team plated six runs in the top of the seventh inning to earn a 14-9 win over host school and No. 1 seed Colorado Mesa University in the first round of the 2014 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship tournament. 
 
The Skyhawks, who improve to 24-27 on the season, entered the tournament as the eighth seed.
 
Fort Lewis scored the first runs of the game after plating two in the top of the third inning.  Chelsea Rodriguez and Missy Fundora each crossed home plate on a fielding error by the Mavericks.
 
CMU tied the game in the bottom of the third after Makayla Kovac, the RMAC Player of the Year, hit a two run shot to left center.  FLC gained the lead in the fourth after Mariah Stuart scored on one of CMU's six errors.
 
The Skyhawks jumped to a 7-2 lead in the fourth inning after notching four runs.  Adriana Rosthenhausler started the inning with a triple to center field.  Rosthenhausler scored after Rodriguez reached first base on a fielding error.  Rodriguez scored her second run of the game on a throwing error.  Hayley Bolyard added a run with a single down the left field line to plate Nikki Klepfer, who entered the game as a pinch runner for Kamali'i Peneku.  Kaitlyn Bending recorded one of her two hits in the fourth inning that resulted in Bolyard scoring the Skyhawks seventh run of the game.
 
Jeovanna Rios tallied her fifth career home run and fifth home run this season in the sixth inning before CMU took a 9-8 after six complete innings. 
 
CMU cut the lead in the next half inning to 7-5 when they added three runs
 
The Skyhawks bats posted four hits that resulted six runs in the top of the seventh to give FLC a 14-9 lead they would not relinquish.  Bending started the scoring spree with a single to center field that drove in Stuart and Peneku.  The next batter, Fundora, cleared the bases with a two run shot (Bending scored). Rosthenhausler stole home base followed by Myndee Thompson who added the final run with a single up the middle that scored Rodriguez.
 
Victoria Johnson earned the win after working 5.2 innings and allowing four runs on two hits.  She fanned three batters and walked five. 
 
Fundora and Rosthenhausler each tallied three hits with Bolyard and Bending adding two apiece.  As a team, the Skyhawks out-hit the Mavericks 12-9 and did not commit one error.
 
Fort Lewis will play fourth seed Metro State Friday morning at 10:45 a.m.