PUEBLO, Colo. March 12, 2016 — The Colorado State University-Pueblo softball team dropped the first two games of its Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference weekend pod series against Metro State University of Denver and Chadron State by the final scores of 3-2 and 11-2, respectively.
CSU-Pueblo (5-20 overall, 4-10 RMAC) opened up Saturday's action inside Rawlings Softball Complex with a morning matchup with Metro State (14-10 overall, 11-3 RMAC) and nearly knocked off the second place Roadrunners.
After trailing 3-0 through five innings, the Pack battle back to make things interesting as they tallied a run in the sixth inning on an RBI double by junior Lexie Martindale (Pueblo, Colo.), scoring Dora Hernandez (Benton City, Wash.), who had reached on a one-out single.
The ThunderWolves cut the deficit to one in the home half of the seventh as juniors Nicole Montoya (Pueblo, Colo.) and Moriah Turney (Brighton, Colo.) delivered a two-out double and two-out single in succession. Unfortunately, for the Pack, the rally ended there as Metro State pitcher Cassidy Smith recorded her eighth and final strikeout of the game one batter later to seal the 3-2 final.
CSU-Pueblo out-hit Metro State in Game One, 9-7, paced by two hits apiece for Turney and Montoya.
On the mound, redshirt freshman Hope Davalos (Rancho Cucamongo, Calif.) was solid in her tough-luck loss as she went all seven innings, allowed three earned runs on seven hits, and struck out six.
The Pack were unable to duplicate their solid performance against the Roadrunners in their Game Two matchup against Chadron State (14-11-1) as they were out-hit 10-5, and committed two errors defensively, en route to an 11-2 loss in five innings.
Chadron State, which lost 8-3 to Metro State a few minutes prior to first pitch with the ThunderWolves, got the bats rolling early as it tallied three runs in the top of the first inning.
CSU-Pueblo answered with a run in the home-half of the first inning on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly off the bat of senior Madison Wolfe (Oxnard, Calif.), who also added an RBI double in the third to bump her team-high RBI total to 19.
The Eagles countered with a four-run second inning to break the game open, and added a pair of runs in the third and fourth innings to close out the 11-2 final.
Hernandez went a spotless 2-for-2 with a walk at the plate to lead CSU-Pueblo, while Wolfe, sophomore Alyssa Ubrun (Olympia, Wash.), and junior Kennedy Smith (Fillmore, Calif.) each collected one hit.
The Pack, who are in the midst of a 12-game home stand, will square off against the same two teams Sunday, starting with a 10 a.m. rematch with Chadron State before concluding the pod series with a 2 p.m. contest against Metro State.
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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Colorado State University – Pueblo competes in 22 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics
