University of Northern Colorado Athletics
Flynn, Smith power Bears to wild, windy 20-12 win
4/8/2013 12:00:00 AM | Softball
By ZACH BOND
UNCBears.com
GREELEY -- In what can only be described as a "wild game" at Butler-Hancock Field, the Northern Colorado softball squad on Monday afternnon snapped a four-game losing streak with a 20-12, six-inning nonconference win against Black Hills State.
Northern Colorado scored a season-high 20 runs on 15 hits, behind the strength of sophomore Kaitlin Flynn (3-for-4) and senior Lindsey Smith (3-for-4), who combined for six of the Bears' nine extra-base hits and helped Northern Colorado (13-24-1) score at least eight runs in two of the six innings.
The weather Monday was as wacky as the final score, with gusts up to 40 mph blowing up dirt and wreaking havoc on any fly ball.
The Bears, who will get right back to Big Sky play this weekend with a three-game home series against Idaho State, starting at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 13, fell behind 5-0 in the first inning against the Yellow Jackets with junior Breeanna Holliday (Moorpark, Calif.) getting the start in the circle and allowing five runs on four hits while getting just two outs before being replaced by Megan Wilkinson (Windsor, Colo.)
The Bears answered right back in their half of the first, though, with a two-run opposite-field homer by Smith (Dallas, Texas).
The Yellow Jackets scored two more in the third to take a 7-2 lead before Northern Colorado's offense really started clicking. The Bears scored one run in the bottom of the third to cut the deficit to four and then opened the floodgates with an eight-run fourth inning that put them ahead 11-7.
After a Nicole Hudson (Westminster, Colo. double got the inning started, Flynn (Johnstown, Colo.) scored a run with a triple to right center, and then she scored on the next play on an RBI groundout by Jaicy Sutak (Lyons, Colo.)
The Bears scored three more times before they got some help from a Yellow Jackets' error that allowed two more runs to score to put them ahead 10-7. Flynn's second triple of the inning, a shot down the right-field line, again scored Hudson and put Northern Colorado ahead by four.
Black Hills State came right back in the fifth innin, though, scoring five runs to retake the lead at 12-11.
Things turned back in the Bears' favor in the sixth in a big way.
With one out and a runner at second, Hudson knocked in an RBI with a double, and she scored soon after when Flynn crushed a home run to right field that gave the Bears a lead they wouldn't relinquish, at 14-12. Then, after a walk by Sutak, a single from Mikayla Duffy (Grand Junction, Colo.) and a walk from Melissa Marcovecchio (Broomfield, Colo.), Smith hammered a bases-clearing three-run triple to make it 17-12 Northern Colorado.
Senior Jamie Pollak (Chandler, Ariz.) followed with an RBI single, scoring Smith, and Morgan Yuhas (Henderson, Nev.) ended the game with a two-run double that plated Pollak and Ashleigh Waterland (Windsor, Colo.) and made the score 20-12.
Wilkinson (Windsor, Colo.) improved to 5-13 on the year with the win, throwing 5 1/3 innings and giving up three earned runs on six hits and two walks.
