DURANGO, Colo. – March 21, 2015 – Hosting a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference pod weekend against University of Colorado Colorado Springs and Regis University, the Fort Lewis College softball team dropped two games at Aspen Field. The Skyhawks fell to UCCS in the opening game, 5-3, and lost to Regis 5-4 in the night cap game. The Rangers defeated UCCS, 8-5, in the second game of today's pod.
"These were tough games today and really hard fought," said head coach
Kira Zeiter. "If we had a few things going our way it's a different story. The team never gave up and we're going to come out fired up tomorrow."
Against the Mountain Lions, the Skyhawks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. The leadoff batter,
Missy Fundora, hit a double to center field.
Myndee Thompson reached base after drawing a walk and then stole second.
Jeovanna Rios grounded out to short stop but drove home Fundora. With two outs,
Tristen Gilbert hit a double to left center that scored Thompson.
Mandy Owens followed with a double that drove home Gilbert for a 3-0 Skyhawks lead.
Fort Lewis would tally five more hits in the next six innings but were held scoreless the remainder of the game.
UCCS pounded out five runs in the fifth inning off of five hits. Dani Fonseca hit a home run to plate three of UCCS's five runs.
Victoria Johnson pitched the first 4.1 innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits.
Olivia Goldberg entered the game and pitched two complete innings, allowing one run (unearned) on five hits before
Kiley Raica closed the game to pitch the final two outs of the seventh inning.
Fundora and Gilbert each posted two hits for the Skyhawks, with Rios, Gilbert and Owens each driving in one run.
In the Skyhawks second game of the day, Regis took a 3-0 lead before FLC scored a run in the bottom of the third inning. With two outs,
Kaitlyn Bending singled to second base to score Raica and cut the Rangers lead down to 3-1.
Fort Lewis tied the game with two runs in the fourth inning. With bases loaded, Raica hit a single that scored Gilbert.
Denae Fisher then singled to the short stop to bring in the tying run (Owens).
Regis took a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning but FLC answered in the bottom of the fifth after Owens hit a double to score Rios and knot the game at 4-4 after five complete innings.
In the top of the seventh, Regis hit a two run shot to take a 6-4 lead. The Skyhawks started the bottom of the seventh inning with the first two batters getting out. Rios and Gilbert then drew back-to-back walks before Owens loaded the bases with a single to right center.
Nikki Klepfer brought home a run after drawing the third walk of the inning to score Rios, but RU defense held on for the 5-4 win.
Raica pitched the entire game, allowing six runs on 13 hits and fanning four batters.
Owens tallied three hits, one run batted in and scored one run. Raica added two hits, one run scored and one run batted in.
Fort Lewis will continue pod action Sunday morning at 10 a.m. against Regis. After the Rangers and Mountain Lions face off against each other in game two, the Skyhawks will wrap up the weekend against UCCS.
