HELENA, Mont. – Carroll Softball relied on clutch hitting and dominate pitching to sweep Eastern Oregon 5-1 in the first game and 7-4 in the second to improve to 17-15 on the season and 6-8 in conference.
Jaylin Kenney led off the first inning of the first game with a single to third base. She later reached third base on a sacrifice bunt and wild pitch. With two outs in the inning,
Tianna Sell tripled on a ball that hit the right field foul line, scoring Kenney, and gave the Saints an early 1-0 lead.
Eastern Oregon was held hitless until the fourth inning when Cheyenne Barker got a fastball down the middle and crushed a home run deep over the center field fence. The Mountaineers tied the game at 1 after four innings.
The Saints answered back in the bottom of the fifth after a single by
Allison Bayer down the left field foul line, scoring
Paige Blake, and giving the Saints a 2-1 lead. Sell was next up and she took a high fastball over the center field fence for a two run home run and a 4-1 lead.
Saints pitcher
Megan Gipe not only dominated on the rubber but also at the plate. On a 1-2 count in the bottom of sixth, Gipe took a fastball deep for a solo home run, the final Saint across the plate in the 5-1 win.
Gipe pitched a complete game, only allowing two hits and one run to a Mountaineers team that averages almost six runs per game. She improved to 4-6 on the season.
Sell went 2-3 on the day with one home run and three RBIs with a run scored. Bayer also hit 2-3, driving in one run and scoring once.
"(Gipe) had a great performance today." Head Coach
Aaron Jackson said. "She only made one bad pitch and gave us a good chance to win."
The Mountaineers struck first in the second game in the top of the third inning. After loading the bases on three singles, Barker stepped up to the plate with one out. Barker got another fastball that hit too much of the plate, and she slammed her ninth home run of the season to put the Mountaineers up 4-0 after the third inning.
Haylie Van laethem started the game for the Mountaineers and held the Saints in check through the first four innings. However, Carroll got the board in the fifth inning after a
Justine Taylor single to deep right-center field, scoring Blake. Bayer picked up a run with a single through short to score Kenney. Sell picked up her fourth RBI of the day with a single to center, scoring Taylor and cutting the lead to 4-3.
After two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth, the nine hitter for the Saints, Blake, singled to left field. Kenney followed her up with another single, this time to center field. Taylor came through to tie the game with a single to left, scoring Blake and putting runners on second and third. Bayer laced a ball up the middle to score both Kenney and Taylor and give the Saints a 6-4 lead. Sell continued the rally with the fifth straight two out single, scoring Bayer and giving the Saints the 7-4 victory.
MacKenna Landis started the game for Carroll, going three innings, giving up four runs on five hits.
Tess Eaton came in for relief at the start of the fourth inning and blanked the Mountaineers. She gave up no runs and only two hits in four innings of work to pick up the victory to improve to 5-3 on the season.
"Tianna and Allison came up huge for us when we needed it the most." Jackson said. "We fight even if there are two strikes or two outs, we never give up."
The Saints do not get long to enjoy the sweep as they host a doubleheader on Saturday against conference opponent College of Idaho. The Yotes are 12-15-1 on the season after splitting their doubleheader against University of Great Falls. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Centennial Park.
