March 21, 2009
Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
OREM, Utah - Utah Valley University's softball team tried to come-from-behind in both games of a doubleheader against Northern Colorado Saturday but the Bears (11-20) were too much as they defeated the Wolverines (9-14) twice, 9-4 and 6-3.
The Bears took three-out-of-four from the Wolverines, ruining UVU's opening home series.
"We just have to learn how to manage ourselves," UVU head softball coach Todd Fairbourne said. "Whether we are making base running mistakes, pitching mistakes or errors in the field, we just cannot win when we make so many mistakes. I am disappointed because our defense is way better than we have been playing lately. I just feel like we could have been the team leaving here this weekend with three of the wins, but we need to learn and build from it and come out Monday and get some wins."
In game one Northern Colorado came out and scored two runs off of the Wolverines starter freshman Jessica Martin as Martin allowed a leadoff single followed by a two-run homer off of the bat of Melisa Ryba. UVU answered back in the bottom of the first pushing across a run of its own as senior Lauren Augino walked and junior Cherylyn McGraw drove her home with a two out RBI double to left.
Heading into the bottom of the fourth Utah Valley found themselves trailing 7-1 but managed to score a run as junior Jessica Anderson singled, stole second and freshman Amanda Perez came through with a RBI double down the leftfield line.
UNC would tack on two more runs taking a 9-2 advantage. The Wolverines wouldn't give up as they put together a nice two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh with a walk and back-to-back-to-back hits but the deficit was too large to overcome as they fell 9-4.
In game two Wolverines took an early 1-0 advantage as leadoff hitter sophomore Meghan Woodworth doubled to left and was knocked in by the hot-hitting senior Magan Niemann who singled into left. Northern Colorado quickly came back and scored five runs in the second off of starter junior Amber Sackett. Defensively UVU committed two errors in the frame not helping out Sackett any. In total in the two games the Wolverines made nine errors.
In the bottom of the third inning, with the score now 6-1 Bears, UVU pushed across two runs cutting the deficit in half at 6-3. Niemann and senior Kylee Steadman drove home the runs in the inning but Utah Valley couldn't get any closer as they fell by the score of 6-3.
In game one Niemann, McGraw, and Anderson all had two hits and in game two Niemann collected two more hits, as did Steadman.
Utah Valley will next host the Broncos of Boise State on Monday for a quick doubleheader beginning at 2:30 p.m. at MSTAR Field. The Wolverines will play two more games the very next day, Tuesday, at the University of Utah with that doubleheader beginning at 2:00 p.m.
