Softball Season Ends at
NAIA Regional Playoffs
Longball sends EOU packingMay
13, 2004
Game 1 - (1) #2 Simon Fraser 12,
Eastern Oregon 0 (5 inn.)
Game 2 - (3) Oregon Tech 5, Eastern Oregon 3
PORTLAND, Ore. - As quickly as is
started, the stay for the Eastern Oregon University Mountaineer
softball team ended as EOU dropped two straight at the NAIA Region I
Playoffs at Delta Park in North Portland.
In the opening round, the fourth-seeded
Mountaineers faced No. 1 seed and second-ranked Simon Fraser.
The Clan quickly dismissed EOU to the losers' bracket with a 12-0
defeat. In the game, Eastern
was touched up for seven runs in the second inning and then four
more in the third. In that seven-run second, Simon Fraser smacked
two homers and three doubles off EOU starter Shannon Rasmussen
(L, 15-7), who lasted just an inning and a two-thirds. In
total, Rasmussen was charged with seven run off eight hits with two
walks and a strikeout.
Rasmussen would be relieved by Kalli McGilley. McGilley would
not fare much better in her inning and a third, as the Clan kept
their offensive machine cranking with four more runs on four hits,
including their third homer of the game.
Jayne-Leigh Thomas would finish the
game, allowing just a single run in a hit and two walks.
Eastern would avert what would have been
the first-ever combined perfect game against the Mountaineers, in
the top of the fifth when with two out, Adrienne Fullmer singled
into left field off Simon Fraser relief pitcher Jesse Sigurdson.
In fact, Sigurdson got into a little bit of trouble, when Nicole
Landstrom reached on a throwing error by the Clan's shortstop.
Sierra Russell then singled to load the bases for Cheyanne Stalwick,
who ended the game with a popup to second.
Game two would pit the Mountaineers
against the third-seed Oregon Tech Owls. The Mountaineers
spotted the Owls a 3-0 lead with two runs in the first off an Amanda
Doherty two-run homer and a single unearned run in the second.
Doherty was named Cascade Collegiate
Conference Player of the Year earlier in the week.
Eastern finally tallied their first runs
of the playoffs in the sixth inning, when Nicki Schultz scored on
Tonilynn Reardon's fielder's choice. The very next batter,
Casi Reisenauer, tied the score at 3-3 with a two-run shot to left
center. It was her first round-tripper of the year.
Just when things were looking up, Oregon
Tech's Laura Delplanche drilled a two-run homer into straight-away
center for the 5-3 lead.
Eastern Oregon went 1-2-3 in the seventh to end the game.
Rasmussen pitched the complete game for
the loss and ended the season 15-8. In the game, she allowed
OIT the five runs, four earned, off seven hits, two walks and two
strikeouts. The Mountaineers did not do themselves any favors as
they stranded 11 runners on base and did not take full advanage of
four OIT errors. Beth Hull,
Adrienne Fullmer, Sierra Russell, and Shannon Rasmussen each had two
hits on the day for Eastern. Reisenauer's homer would be
Eastern Oregon's only extra base hit.
Eastern Oregon ends the season with a
25-18 overall record. |
