Yellowjackets’ Split Gives Aumend 200^th Career Win (Apr. 11, 2004)
Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings softball team earned a doubleheader split with Hawaii Pacific on Sunday, taking three of the four games against the Sea Warriors and giving Yellowjacket head coach Jeff Aumend his 200^th career victory.  The Jackets won the first game, 6-4, behind four home runs from the offense and another strong pitching performance from Joey Ehnes.  The Sea Warriors’s bats caught fire in a 17-3 game two victory. 

Aumend, who is in his fourth season at the helm of the Yellowjackets, is now 200-223 in 11 seasons as an NCAA head coach.  Both of his head coaching stints have been at schools where he was the softball program’s first coach.  He was the first coach at Queens College (NC), where he had a 155-132 record in seven seasons.  Since starting the softball program at MSU Billings in 2001, Aumend is 45-90 with the Yellowjackets.

“It’s fun to reach a milestone,” said Aumend, “but it’s even more fun when the types of players you get to coach are student-athletes that make the job enjoyable.  The challenges that go with starting a program from scratch are beyond wins and losses because you begin with nothing and have to add all the essentials like uniforms, a field, players, and all the parts that go into a program.  To have success on the win side is a bonus on top of the joy of watching the program grow.”

After a slow start out of the gate this season, the Yellowjackets have won 10 of their last 15 games.  Eight of those games have been played against teams ranked in the top ten in the NCAA West Region.  The Jackets are 4-4 in those games.  Sunday’s split moved MSUB’s overall season record to 19-27 and their PacWest Conference mark to 3-12.  HPU, ranked third in the last West Region poll, is 16-15 overall and 7-9 in the PacWest.

Ehnes, a junior from Great Falls, Mont., improved her season record to 16-15 by going the distance for the win in game one.  She was the pitcher of record in all three of the Jackets’ wins against HPU this weekend and has won five of her last six starts and seven of her last 12.  On Sunday, she struck out six while scattering seven hits over seven innings.  She is second in the PacWest with 206 strikeouts.

“Every time Joey Ehnes steps on the pitching rubber, we have a chance to win the game,” said Aumend.  “Today was a case of Joey holding down the other team and the offense getting the right hits.”

Those hits came in the form of four home runs that accounted for all six of the Yellowjackets’ runs in their game one win.  Junior Stephanie Cochrun started the long ball parade with a leadoff solo shot in the bottom of the second, her fourth of the season.  Layne Pavey, the heroine of Saturday’s extra innings win, followed Cochrun with her fourth home run of the season on the next at bat to give MSUB a 2-0 lead.  Both homers were on two-strike counts.

Hawaii Pacific got on the board with a run in the top of the fourth to cut the Jackets’ lead in half.  Jennifer Baron scored an unearned run when Pavey’s throw to third was off the mark and landed in left field. 

The Jackets answered in the fifth with another pair of back-to-back home runs.  After Cami Rainey and Anna Henderson reached base on a single and an error respectively, Sara Hanley landed her first homer of the season on the hill beyond the left field fence to give MSU Billings a 5-1 advantage.  Theresa Campbell followed with a line drive home run over the centerfield fence to put the Jackets ahead 6-1.  It was Campbell’s fourth homer of the year and second of the weekend.  The Sea Warriors pitched around her most of the weekend, walking her seven times in four games. 

Hawaii Pacific made things interesting in the top of the seventh when the Sea Warriors’ Holly Garcia hit a three-run homer off Ehnes to pull HPU to within two runs.  Rachel Lacar and Brandy Choy Foo each scored on Garcia’s home run.  Ehnes ended the game by forcing Anuhea Diamond to fly out to center, then striking out Jennifer Baron. 

“Offensively, we have been a much better team in the second half of the season,” said Aumend.  “In all four games this weekend, we put the ball in play, and on top of that we got big hits in big moments.”

“We felt coming into the season that we could by the second-best offensive team in the league.  We didn’t start that way, but in the second half we’ve started to live up to our potential.”

Pavey was 2-for-3 in the game with an RBI and a run scored.  For the weekend, she went 7-for-13 at the plate with two home runs, four RBI and two runs scored.  Hanley was 1-for-3 in the game with what turned out to be the game-winning home run.  Garcia led the Sea Warriors, going 2-for-4 with three RBI.

The wheels came off early for the Yellowjackets in the second game.  MSUB took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when leadoff hitter Cami Rainey scored from third on a sacrifice bunt from Campbell.  The Sea Warriors’ bats then erupted for 18 hits, seven runs and three home runs. 

MSUB’s Stephanie Cochrun gave up six hits and six runs in the first inning and two thirds to take the loss.  She was relieved by Megan McCrae, who allowed three hits and four runs in a third of an inning.  Jordan Waverek finished the final three innings, giving up nine hits and seven runs.

Jamie Reyes was the Sea Warriors’ big bat in the game, going 4-for-4 at the plate with nine RBI and two runs scored.  She came to the plate in the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and needing just a single to hit for the cycle.  Instead, she crushed her second home run of the game for a grand slam.  Garcia added four RBI, including a three-run home run.  Malia Sullivan pitched all five innings for the victory, giving up eight hits and three runs.

MSU Billings added two runs in the bottom of the fourth when Joey Ehnes hit her second home run of the season, clearing the right field fence to score Waverek, who had singled.  Ehnes was 6-for-13 for the weekend with four RBI. 

The Yellowjackets return to action on April 21 with a doubleheader at Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo.  They will also play a split squad exhibition at Dawson CC on April 17 in Glendive.  MSUB’s next home games will be April 24 and 26 when the Yellowjackets host BYU-Hawaii for a pair of PacWest Conference doubleheaders.