Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Burnaby, BC - The Simon Fraser University softball team returned to conference play after last weekend's non-conference tournament, losing to the Central Washington Wildcats 3-0 and 5-4.
Jessica Goulet (Cambridge, ON) started both games for the Clan going seven innings in game one, allowing eight hits and three runs, only one of which was earned.
"I think we squandered an outstanding pitching performance by Goulet in game one," said Head Coach
Mike Renney. "We came in tight and made two errors in the first inning and that turned out to be the tale of the game as those runs held up as the winning and insurance run. We simply didn't provide any offensive support."
Central Washington scored two runs in the first inning and one in the sixth.
SFU was limited to two hits in the first game, both coming in the fifth inning.
With two outs,
Robyn Mogavero (Whitby, ON) singled and was promptly followed by a
Kendra Goodman (Surrey, BC) single, giving the Clan runners on and the first and second with the go ahead run at the plate but Central Washington retired the side with a line out to the shortstop.
In game two, Goulet went six innings allowing nine hits and five runs, four of which were earned.
She was relieved for an inning by
Jessica Fortier (Three Hills, AB) who allowed two hits and no runs in an inning of work.
"We played a different kind of game in the second game, we put some bats on the ball, made some things happen and get some runs on the board. We had a nice breakout day by
Alex Baylak who had been struggling most of the year but got back to the form she had last year as a freshman when she led the team in home runs," continued Renney.
Three of the Clan runs were driven in by
Alex Baylak (Regina, SK) as the sophomore first baseman hit two home runs, a solo shot in the fourth and a two run home run to give the Clan the lead in the sixth.
SFU took the lead in the bottom of the first inning in game two, as Mogavero came around to score after she reached base on an infield single and scored on a two out, RBI double by
Rachel Proctor (Surrey, BC).
Central Washington took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning and Baylak pulled the Clan within one with her solo home run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 3-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, with two outs and Goodman on first base, Baylak gave her team the lead with a two run shot, to make it 4-3.
In the top of seventh CWU came back to re-take the lead.
With one out and the bases loaded, Andrea Hamada hit a deep single off the right-centre field wall to score two and give her team the lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Clan got the tying and the winning run into scoring position as
Nicole Ratel (Langley, BC) and Mogavero reached on an error that allowed her and Ratel to reach second and third respectively.
That was as close as SFU would get as the next batter grounded out to end the game.
"I think in the second game we rode a little bit of a roller coaster in terms of emotions and let them back in the game a couple times. They're an outstanding team (Central). They are certainly playoff bound and that's where we want to be next year."
"We can't get used to settling and we settled today. We were primed to take one but I think we settled for a close game where as a more experienced team wouldn't have surrendered those runs late and would've come away with a victory," finished Renney.
SFU will be back in action at Beedie Field on Sunday when they host the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at 5:00 p.m.
