Recap: @bearssoftball Defeats Sam Houston State, Falls to Wichita State

Saturday, February 17

Huntsville, TX

9 am

University of Northern Colorado

4-4

Wichita State

4-3

Wichita State

Northern Colorado

2/17/2018 9:19:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Vidal powers UNC to another win, while errors plague the team against Shockers

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Northern Colorado softball went 1-1 on Saturday in the second day of the Bearkats Softball Classic. UNC dropped its first game 7-1 to Wichita State in the morning, before rebounding in the afternoon to defeat Sam Houston State 3-1.

The defense for UNC struggled in the first game with four errors that put the team in an early deficit that they couldn't rebound from. The Bears once again turned to Valerie Vidal in the second game, who pitched another complete game to grab the win.

Northern Colorado-Wichita State
Kelli Kleis was in the circle for UNC against the Shockers' Baily Lange in the first game of the day for the Bears. Wichita St. scored early against Kleis, with the help of three errors on the Bears in the first inning. After Ryleigh Buck stole second base, an error by Emma Brockman allowed Mackenzie Wright to score. Two errors by Mady Young kept the inning going for the Shockers and they would take advantage with three more runs. UNC was quickly in a 4-0 hole against Wichita St. after the top of the first.

Mady Young and Kenzie Kudrna both reached base to start the game and UNC was in business with two on and no outs. Young and Kudrna executed a double-steal to put both runners in scoring position. The Bears were unable to score any runs after Lange got three straight outs to end the threat.

Wichita St. added another run in the top of the second with a sacrifice fly to score Morgan Palmer. The third inning would be the end of Kleis' day after Shockers scored two more runs and extended their lead to 7-0 over the Bears. Kleis allowed seven runs in 2.2 innings, however, only three were earned while striking out two.

Lauren Paige relieved Kleis and kept the Wichita St. hitters in check for the rest of the game. Paige pitched 4.1 innings allowing one hit, walking two, and striking out three.

UNC had baserunners in the second and third innings, but could not put enough hits together to score any runs. The Bears scored a run in the bottom of the fifth when Kaley Garcia doubled down the right field line to score Madi Schmidt. UNC was on the board and trailed Wichita St. 7-1.

In the bottom of the sixth, Lange was replaced by Caitlin Bingham for the Shockers. UNC loaded the bases after Paige was hit by a pitch and both Rachel Johnson and Schmidt walked. Young lined out to center field to prevent UNC from cutting the deficit late in the game.

Wichita State closed out UNC for a 7-1 victory, with Lange earning the win (3-1) and Kleis taking the loss (1-1). The difference in the game was the three errors in the first inning and four overall for UNC that allowed four runs to score. UNC was also 2-for-16 with runners on base.

Northern Colorado-Sam Houston State
Vidal started the second game of the day for UNC and she picked up right where she left off from her no-hitter on Friday with a quick 1-2-3 inning. Mady Young led off the Bears day at the plate with a walk and stole two bases, followed by another walk from Kaley Garcia. Young was tagged out when Garcia attempted to steal second base.

Madi Schmidt walked to start the bottom of the second and Jordyn Wiatrak was hit by a pitch to put two runners on with no outs. Sophia Taylor smacked a double to right center that scored Schmidt and UNC had a 1-0 lead.

After another clean inning in the second, Vidal allowed a hit in the third to Kaitlynn Dawson. Another Bearkat single put runners on the corners with one out. Vidal was not fazed, getting a line out and a strikeout to end the inning without any damage.

UNC added to its lead in the fifth inning, when Lauren Paige doubled to center field with one out. Emma Brockmann came up to bat and launched a two-run homer to center field and UNC had a 3-1 lead on the freshman's first career homer.

Sam Houston State got to Vidal in the sixth, with Kayte Martinez getting an infield single. After Vidal got a fly-out, Thompson tripled to score Martinez and UNC's lead was down to 3-1.

Vidal managed to close out the game in the top of the seventh with a pair of strikeouts and secured the 3-1 win for UNC.

Vidal was the difference for the Bears, with a final line of seven innings pitched, one run on six hits, eight strikeouts, and only one walk.

In their words
Shana Easley, Head Coach
Game 1
"We played a sloppy game and our mistakes early in the game were hard to bounce back from. There were hard to bounce back from. There were a lot of learning points to take out of the game and we have an opportunity in our next game to improve against Sam Houston State this evening."

Game 2
"I liked the resilience I saw from our team coming back in game 2. We came out focused and ready to play. Sophia and Emma really sparked our offense and drove in the key runs that we needed. Tomorrow we will need to be better at finding ways to score with runners in scoring position since we struggled with that in both games today."

Notes

Valerie Vidal has pitched a complete game in four out of her five starts this season and has a 0.90 ERA.
After stealing three bases today, Mady Young has seven total already this season. Young also leads the Bears with a .349 batting average.
Kaley Garcia had three hits on the day, with one RBI and has a .320 batting average on the season.

Up Next
Northern Colorado will play its final game of the Bearkats Softball Classic tomorrow against Sam Houston State at 1:30 pm MT. Live stats for the game are provided at GoBearkats.com. Follow the game live on Twitter with @bearsoftball.