Jackets Make Short Work of Beavers (Apr. 25, 2005)
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings
wasted little time in sweeping a non-conference
doubleheader against visiting Minot State on Monday. The
Yellowjackets won the first game 3-0 in just an hour and
ten minutes. They followed up with an 8-0 win that lasted
just over an hour to improve to 30-12 on the season.
MSU Billings wraps up the regular
season on Saturday and Sunday when the Yellowjackets host
PacWest rival Western New Mexico for a pair of
doubleheaders. Saturday’s games start at 3:00 p.m. and
Sunday’s begin at 1:00 at Cenex Stadium. In the latest
NCAA West Region poll, MSU Billings was ranked third and
Western New Mexico was ranked tenth. The Jackets will be
trying to secure their first postseason berth in the
program’s history.
The Jackets rode the right arm of Joey
Ehnes (Great Falls, MT) in Monday’s first game. The
senior hurler struck out 14 while giving up just one hit
in seven innings to improve to 23-9. The Beavers’ Erica
Cochrane broke up the no-hit bid with a dribbler up the
middle in the second inning.
Minot’s Whitney Friesen was nearly as
effective, scattering seven hits and three runs over six
innings. The three runs came courtesy of a pair of
Yellowjacket home runs. Theresa Campbell (Sr., Great Falls, MT) hit a two-run
blast in the bottom of the fourth, driving in Rachel Quarnburg (So., Billings, MT) who had walked.
It was Campbell’s eleventh home run of the year.
Sara
Hanley (Sr., Kalispell, MT) capped the scoring with a
leadoff homer in the bottom of the fifth. It was Hanley’s
first home run of the season. Hanley was 1-for-1 in the
game. Campbell went 2-for-3, and Quarnburg was 1-for-2
with a walk.
The Jackets blew the second game open
early after Beavers starter Brittany Mellors got herself
in trouble with four walks. MSUB plated two in the first
and four in the second before ending the game via the
eight run rule with two runs in the fifth inning. Mellors
gave up seven hits and eight earned runs in four innings.
The Jackets’ Jordan Waverek (Sr., Kalispell, MT) earned the win to
improve to 4-0. She gave up just one hit and one walk in
three innings. Megan McCrae (Sr., Brandon, Manitoba) pitched the
final two innings, allowing one hit.
Cami
Rainey (Sr., Terreton, ID) led off the Jackets’ half
of the first with a double to the fence in right center.
Two batters later Campbell hit her second home run of the
day and her school-record twentieth of her career.
Aysha Blatter (So., Richland, WA) started the second
inning barrage with a double to center. Two walks later,
Rainey hit a bases loaded double, driving in three runs.
She advanced to third on the throw to the plate and scored
on an Ehnes sac fly on the next at bat.
After being held scoreless in the
third and fourth innings, the Jackets struck quickly in
the fifth. Following a Theresa Campbell double to right
center, Christy Wankel (Jr., Great Falls, MT) homered the
opposite way to end the game. It was Wankel’s fifth home
run of the season and the Jackets’ league-leading 41st.
Campbell was 2-for-2 with two runs
and two RBI. Rainey was 2-for-3 with two runs and three
RBI. Wankel went 1-for-3 with a pair of runs batted in.
Notes: With 14 strikeouts in
Monday’s first game, Joey Ehnes has 255 strikeouts on the
season. She needs just six more to tie the single season
school record of 261 which she set last year as a junior.
Her 623 career Ks are also a school record. The next NCAA
regional poll should be released on Wednesday (although
some of the polls this year have been released on
Thursdays). The Jackets held a narrow edge on No. 4 San
Francisco State for the third spot last week. The Gators
were 4-1 at last weekend’s tournament in Bakersfield,
including an upset of second- |
