Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Burnaby, BC - The Simon Fraser University softball team hosted the Western Washington Vikings in a double header on Sunday at Beedie Field with WWU taking both games, 14-7 and 10-4.
"The fans got their monies worth in the first game," said Head Coach
Mike Renney. "It was a slugfest but we made too many errors against a good team and Western Washington is on a roll right now. They're arguably one of the top teams in our conference so full credit to them."
"We need more consistency, especially defensively. We had a good offensive showing in the first game but defensively we didn't play a good game and our pitching was struggling as well. Our pitchers have made good strides of late but regressed a bit today."
Jessica Goulet (Cambridge, ON) pitched five and a third innings in game one, allowing 10 runs, only five of which were earned while Mackenze Bender (St. Albert, AB) allowed four runs in an inning and two thirds.
Robyn Mogavero (Whitby, ON),
Kaitlyn Cameron (Langley, BC),
Rachel Proctor (Surrey, BC) and
Stefanie Sheard (Winnipeg, MB) each had two hits in the game for SFU.
Cameron had five RBI's in the game while Mogavero scored twice and
Kendra Goodman (Surrey, BC) scored three times.
With Western Washington leading 6-2 in the fourth, the Clan began to mount a comeback, scoring three runs to pull within one.
The rally happened with two outs and began with a
Stephanie Caron (Delta, BC) walk.
Mogavero singled to left and Goodman reached on an error as the Clan loaded the bases for pinch hitter
Alexis Johnston (Surrey, BC).
Johnston and the Clan took advantage of a WWU error as Johnston reached and Caron scored before Mogavero and Goodman came around to count on an RBI single from Cameron.
Representing the tying run, Cameron would reach second but no further.
Western Washington pulled away in the final three innings, scoring two in the fifth, two in the sixth and four in the seventh to seal the win.
"I think we're making progress and we've played a lot better than we did at the beginning of the season," said Cameron. "We got out to a bit of a slow start but we were able to get back in the game and get some momentum back, unfortunately we just came up short. In the second game we just came out a bit flat. We're a young team and we're improving and we just want to finish strong."
The Clan were stung by injury in game one as junior
Danielle Raison (Langley, BC) left the game, suffering an apparent knee injury while running the bases.
"It was really tough to have to re-group after losing our starting shortstop and our top hitter right now to a serious knee injury that will be diagnosed in the coming days. I think our athletes did as well as you could hope to bounce back from that but I'm sure it was an underlying factor today and it's never good to see that," said Renney.
Jessica Fortier (Three Hills, AB) started the second game and went four and two thirds innings, allowing five runs, all earned.
Goulet saw action in game two as well, throwing two and a third and allowing five runs.
Mogavero had another multi-hit game for the Clan going two for four with two runs scored and two runs batted in.
Goodman also had a pair of RBI's in the game for SFU.
Western Washington held a 4-0 lead in the fifth inning when, with two outs and a runner on, Mogavero blasted her second home run of the season to pull the Clan within two.
Trailing 10-2 in the seventh, Goodman cashed in two more Clan runs on a bases clearing triple but that was as close as SFU would get as Western Washington won game two 10-4.
"We'll get back on the practice field on Monday and get to work on the long list of areas we identified over the course of this double header that we need to work on and that will only make us better in time, but time is running out on this year," finished Renney.
The Clan will be back in action in non-conference play this week at the Turlock Convention & Visitors Bureau Tournament of Champions in Turlock, CA.
