Monmouth, OR - The Simon Fraser University softball team played their first road games of the 2013 Great Northwest Athletic Conference season, winning game two of their double header against the Western Oregon Wolves 6-3, after dropping the opener 8-0.
Kelsie Hawkins (Victoria, BC) got the start and the win in game two, pitching all seven innings as she allowed five hits and three runs while striking out 12 Wolves hitters.
Her 12 strikeouts is a season high in the GNAC.
Only one of the three runs were earned and all three came in the fourth inning.
"We were absolutely flat in the first game, offensively and defensively," said Head Coach
Mike Renney. "We got beat by a team that showed up to play. We took some of that into the second game and we could've had the same outcome if it weren't for a breakout inning in the sixth and an outstanding pitching performance from
Kelsie Hawkins."
Senior
Carly Lepoutre (Pickering, ON) led the Clan offence in game two, going three for four, scoring two runs and driving in four on her sixth inning grand slam, the first home run of her collegiate career.
Danielle Raison (Langley, BC) and
Rosie Murphy (Markham, ON) also had runs batted in for the Clan.
SFU opened the scoring in the first inning with a single run when Lepoutre scored after Raison was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
The score remained 1-0 until the fourth inning when the Wolves scored three to take a 3-1 lead but the Clan bats exploded for five runs in the top of the sixth to give SFU the three run lead that they would eventually win by.
Cara Lukawesky (Coquitlam, BC) got the start in game one and took the loss as she allowed eight hits and five runs, all of them earned in four innings of work.
She was relieved by
Mackenzie Bender (St. Albert, AB) who worked an inning and a third, allowing three runs on three hits.
"We have some kids fighting the flu and our resources are a little depleted but the people getting called upon need to do a better job. We know we have lots of work to do and these games highlighted that," finished Renney.
The split puts the Clan's GNAC record at 8-1 on the season and 12-10 overall, and keeps SFU a game and a half up on second place Western Oregon for top spot in the GNAC standings.
SFU will be back in action on
Sunday in Lacey, WA against the Saint Martin's Saints for a double header beginning at 12:00 p.m.
