Scott Kretzmann
ASC Sports
Information Director
SPEARFISH, S.D. – Freshman Linda Hernandez (Pueblo, Colo.) allowed didn’t allow an earned run in earning her second win of the season and throwing her second complete game of the year during Sunday’s 4-1 Grizzly win in game one, but a bid at sweeping its first series of the season fell just short with a 3-9 loss in game two against Black Hills State.
Now 11-13 overall and 7-9 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) play this season, the Grizzlies sit in ninth in the league standings, one game back of UC-Colorado Springs and Colorado Mines, who are tied for seventh. The Yellow Jackets remain at the bottom of the conference standings with marks of 5-16 overall and 4-10 in the RMAC.
The Grizzlies, who also faced BHSU to conclude their opening weekend of action at the Northern Sun (NSIC)/RMAC Crossover in February, finish the year with a 4-1 mark against the newest member of the conference after having taken the first four games between the two squads this season.
ASC entered the third inning of game one hitless, but pushed across two runs on four hits to take a 2-0 lead.
Sophomore left fielder Carly DeLorenzo (Arvada, Colo.) led off with a double before stealing her team-leading 14th base of the season to advance to second following a fly out. With two outs, DeLorezno was plated on a single from senior third baseman Rebecca Lindquist (Fort Collins, Colo.), the Grizzlies leader with 35 runs batted in this season.
The next two batters, freshman designated player Erica Ecsedy (Saugus, Calif.) and senior right fielder Lizzy Schossow (Fort Morgan, Colo.), hit back-to-back singles, with Schossow’s bringing Lindquist the rest of the way around the bases.
Black Hills threatened in the fifth inning with two straight singles off of Hernandez to lead off the inning, but the next batter flied out to right field and Schossow turned the double to play with a quick throw in to second base, and the ASC lead remained 2-0.
Adams State’s final runs of the game came in the top of the seventh. Junior Jordan Schoepflin (Arvada, Colo.) hit a lead-off double, and senior pinch runner Melinda Velasquez (Montrose, Colo.) would score on an RBI double from junior center fielder Katelyn Lovato (Northglenn, Colo.). Lovato was brought in to score on Lindquist’s second RBI single of the game.
The Yellow Jackets’ first two batters of the seventh flied out before an error kept the inning alive for back-to-back singles to plate the lone BHSU run of the game, unearned.
Hernandez is now 2-0 this season, and leads the team with a 3.49 earned run average in 28.1 innings pitched.
An early 2-1 lead after two innings for the Grizzlies in game two was taken away for good with a 4-run third from the home team, fueled by three Adams State errors. None of the Yellow Jackets’ third inning runs were earned, but they concluded the frame with a 5-2 lead over ASC.
Junior shortstop Brittani Richins (Tremonton, Utah) made it to third after reaching on an error to begin the top half of the fourth, but ended up as one of 10 stranded base runners for ASC in the game.
BHSU tacked on a pair of runs in each the fifth and sixth innings, while Adams State was able to muster up only one run in the sixth on the help of a pair of Yellow Jacket errors.
Game two’s loss for ASC snapped a 5-game winning streak that began on Wednesday with a doubleheader sweep of Eastern New Mexico, the longest of the season for the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies return home next weekend for a 4-game RMAC series against Chadron State, on Saturday and Sunday, March 24-25. The Eagles own a 7-18 mark this season with a 5-11 league record, and have won just a single game in the last two weekend, topping Fort Lewis 11-2 on Saturday.
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