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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Courtney Huff 5.13
Kylyn Rigsby, CMU Athletics
FLC sophomore Courtney Huff scores a run during Thursday's RMAC Tournament game against CCU.
3
Fort Lewis College FLCSB 19-22, 19-17 RMAC
6
Winner Colordo Christian CCSB 27-11, 25-8 RMAC
Fort Lewis College FLCSB
19-22, 19-17 RMAC
3
Final
6
Colordo Christian CCSB
27-11, 25-8 RMAC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Fort Lewis College FLCSB 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 3 6 0
Colordo Christian CCSB 0 0 3 0 2 1 X 6 7 3

W: Sydney Rawlings (4-1) L: Leavell, Brianna (8-12) S: Samaria Roope (2)

Game Recap: Softball | | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

No. 6 seed Skyhawks open RMAC Tournament with 6-3 loss to No. 3 CCU, aim to bounce back Friday

GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado — Making its return to the RMAC Tournament for the first time since 2014, the Fort Lewis College softball team squared off against Colorado Christian University on Thursday in first round action of the double-elimination tournament.

No. 6 seed Fort Lewis received key contributions from the bottom of its batting order, and a gritty start from freshman pitcher Brianna Leavell, but fell by 6-3 final to the No. 3 seeded Cougars.

"The bottom of our lineup did a great job with five of our six hits, and I thought Bri pitched a good game against a good lineup, but when you're 1-for-18 from the top six hitters in your batting order, it's really tough to win games," said FLC head softball coach, Ashley Reeves. "We had plenty of opportunities to score runs and we just didn't score enough of them (Thursday)."

The Skyhawks (19-22 overall) drew first blood in the top of the second inning when junior catcher Taylor Beaman singled home sophomore shortstop Courtney Huff.

Beaman paced the FLC offense Thursday, finishing 2-for-3 with two RBI batting out of the 8-hole, while 9-hole hitter Pilar Gutierrez was 2-for-3 with a RBI and Huff finished 1-for-2 with two runs scored out of the seventh spot in the order.

Colorado Christian (27-11 overall) answered with three runs in the third inning to take a 3-1 advantage.

The Skyhawks nearly pulled even the next half inning when Gutierrez looped a single into shallow right field, scoring Huff from third and forcing a bang-bang play at the plate with Beaman, who was ruled out to end the inning.

FLC took advantage of aggressive baserunning in the top of the sixth when sophomore Jaden Blaise Redus motored home all the way from second on a RBI fielder's choice off the bat of Beaman.

Unfortunately, later in the inning the Skyhawks had a potential fourth run nabbed at home plate when Huff tried scampering home on a dropped throw by CCU first baseman Piper Lujan to end the inning.

"We'll take that risk almost every single time to get those runs to score," Reeves said. "We put pressure on CCU's defense, they committed three errors, but were just unable to get it done today."

CCU tacked on one more insurance run in the home half of the sixth inning to make it a 6-3 game, then survived a two-on, nobody out situation in the top of the seventh for the Skyhawks to hold on for the victory.

In the pitcher's circle, Leavell limited CCU — the second best offense in the RMAC with a .369 team batting average and 45 home runs — to six runs on just seven hits. Three runs came across on two home runs.

"I thought Bri did a great job against their offense, holding them to seven hits. We just missed a couple spots on those two home runs," Reeves said. "But overall, I thought Bri did a great job keeping us in the game."

Fort Lewis will look to bounce back Friday and play its way back up through the bracket, starting at 1:30 p.m. with a matchup against No. 4 seed Colorado School of Mines.

CSM began Thursday with a 5-2 win over Regis, but lost its second game of the day, 2-1, to top-seed and tournament hosts, Colorado Mesa University.

"If we can get the offensive production we need, I think we're going to be fine. The girls need to play with confidence and know they've gotten to this point for a reason," Reeves said. "We can hit, we can play defense and we can pitch. We do those things and we win games. We're facing the best teams in our conference now and we need to go compete."
 
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