Big 5th Inning Does In @BearsSoftball

Saturday, March 25

Cedar City, UT

10:00 AM

University of Northern Colorado

13-21, 0

Southern Utah University

6-17, 0

Northern Colorado

Southern Utah

Photo by: Mark Aguirre

3/25/2017 12:12:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Thomas Hoffman, uncbears.com

BOX SCORE (PDF)

Cedar City, Utah – Northern Colorado jumped out to the start head coach Shana Easley was looking for against Southern Utah Saturday morning. Unexpectedly, a monster inning from the Thunderbirds left the Bears with no ground to stand on, taking the final game of the series 11-3.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Eager to start Saturday off on a good note, the Northern Colorado offense looked to jump on top quickly. Sophia Taylor, batting in the two hole for the first time this season, earned a free pass on a walk. Two batters later, Wiatrak barely missed on a home run, but her double brought in Taylor all the way from first base, propelling the Bears up one after one.

Continuing her stellar play in the Beehive state, Adeline Coldiron found her way to second base off a double in the second inning. Kenzie Kudrna wasted no time pushing her across home plate with a single up the middle, scoring the Bears' second run in as many innings.

The Thunderbirds threatened in the bottom of the second and the third innings. In both cases, Reddacliff left manageable plays for her defense, forcing a pop out to center field in the second and a groundout to second in the third, blanking Southern Utah for the first three innings.

Kurdrna ignited the Northern Colorado once again in the fourth inning, starting the inning off with a triple to left field. Not even a minute later, Cheyenne Talmadge artfully posted a single up the middle, adding to the UNC lead, 3-0.

Trouble began to brew in the bottom of the fifth inning for Reddacliff and the Bears who had held Southern Utah to just two hits in four innings. A lead-off walk, followed by two singles left the bases juiced with no one out. Much to the UNC faithful's dismay, SUU was able to keep their carousel turning. When the dust settled for the Thunderbirds, they had combined for 11 runs on eight hits.

Unfortunately, for Northern Colorado, there would be no rebuttal. The 11 Southern Utah runs stretched their lead to eight with the minimum innings completed, ending the contest abruptly, 11-3.

KEY STAT
Batting with the bases loaded – Northern Colorado filled the base pads twice on Saturday, both times failing to record a hit. On the other hand, Southern Utah was 3-4 (.750) in the same situations.

MOST VALUABLE BEAR
Kenzie Kudrna – Kudrna was a definite bright spot for the Bears, going 2-2 at the plate today, recording her first triple of 2017, notching an RBI and scoring a run.

IN THEIR WORDS
Shana Easley, Head Coach
"As we get into conference play now, we need to focus on finding the line between competing hard and having a loose and confident mindset. We were close to doing that this weekend as a whole, but a few lapses ended up biting us and we aren't happy with the result. We will look to make that adjustment for our upcoming games."

NOTABLES
-Kenzie Kudrna recorded her first triple of 2017.
-Freshman Sophia Taylor reached safely in her seventh consecutive game.
-Jordyn Wiatrak became the first UNC player this season to reach double digit totals in doubles with 10.
-Cheyenne Talmadge remains perfect on the season in stolen bases (10-10).
-UNC was 7-14 (.500) in advancement opportunities Saturday.
-The Bears defense did not commit and error. In fact, over the three-game series, Easley's fielders recorded only one error all weekend.

UP NEXT
Northern Colorado will re-group and refocus for their second Big Sky Conference series at Portland State next weekend. The Bears will return home on April 7 for their BSC opener, facing Weber State.