Recap: Johnson Walks It Off Against the Aggies for @bearssoftball

Friday, March 9

Davis, CA

1:15 pm

University of Northern Colorado

11-11

Utah State

9-9

Utah State

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Rob Trubia

3/9/2018 8:10:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Northern Colorado won the first game of the day, but play was suspended in the second game

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

DAVIS, Calif.- Northern Colorado softball started its Aggie Invitational play with a walk-off, 3-2 win against Utah State in extra innings. Play was suspended in UNC's second game of the day after five innings, due to darkness.

Northern Colorado-Utah State

The Bears had Valerie Vidal in the circle against the Aggies and she went against Kelli White. Vidal cruised through the first inning and the lineup tried to give her the lead in the bottom half. Mady Young would draw a lead-off walk and then steal second base to get into scoring position. A single from Madi Schmidt would put runners on the corners with no outs. White clamped down and got three straight outs to strand both Bears on base.

The Aggies would load the bases against Vidal in the top of the second, but she was able to avoid any damage in the inning after she got Stepha Reed to foul out. Both teams were getting runners on and into scoring position, but were having difficulty bringing them into score through the first four innings of the game.

In the top of the fifth, Utah State broke the stalemate with an RBI double from Amee Aarhus to give the Aggies a 1-0 lead over the Bears.

UNC would get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth when Kaley Garcia was hit by a pitch to start the inning. The Bears loaded the bases when Jordyn Wiatrak and Rachel Johnson walked with one out in the sixth. A wild pitch from White would allow Garcia to score and UNC tied the game at one at the end of six innings.

Now in the seventh, neither team would manage to get anything going in its half of the inning and game would head to extras.

Utah State scored in the top of the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Baile Trapp that scored Aarhus for the 2-1 lead.

UNC wasted no time in the bottom of the inning, getting a walk from Garcia and Paige would get hit by a pitch to load the bases. Wiatrak would then fly out to left field and Schmidt would tag up, tying the game at two. Garcia would be thrown out at home after Emma Brockmann hit into a fielder's choice and there were two outs with two on. Rachel Johnson would deliver the two-out, walk-off single down the left field line to score Paige and give UNC the 3-2 win.

Johnson delivered the big hit for UNC in extra innings and Vidal was a workhorse for UNC to keep the damage limited throughout the game.

Northern Colorado –UC-Davis

UNC and UC-Davis were scoreless through five innings when play was suspended prior to the start of the sixth inning. The game will resume on either Sunday March, 11^th or Monday March 12^th.

In their words

Shana Easley, Head Coach
"It was a battle the whole game and we were able to claw out a win. We were doing well getting runners on base the whole game, but needed the timely hit. Rachel did a great job coming up big for us at the end with the walk of hit to score the winning run."

Notes

Valerie Vidal pitched all eight innings for the Bears, allowing two runs with only one being earned, on four hits. She struck out eight Aggies, while walking 3.
Mady Young recorded her team-leading eighth stolen base of the season against Utah State. She has only been caught stealing once in nine attempts.
Rachel Johnson's winning RBI gave her 10 on the season and is the third Bear to have double-digit RBIs, along with Jordyn Wiatrak(15) and Emma Brockmann(13).

Up Next

Northern Colorado resumes play in the Aggie Invitational Saturday, with games against Utah State at 9 A.M. (MT) and Nevada at 2:15 P.M. Live stats for the games are provided by UCDavisAggies.com. Follow the games live on Twitter with @bearssoftball.