March 9, 2007
BOX SCORE
LAS VEGAS, Nev.-- Longwood University softball game two rally fell short, as the Lancers fell 8-7 to Portland State in the Eller Media Stadium Classic Friday afternoon. Longwood (8-4) rallied back from four runs down in the sixth, to tie the game at seven before the Vikings’ Mandy Hill hit her second homerun of the game for the 8-7 win. The Lancers will return to action on Saturday, March 10 when they take on Oregon in 6:45 p.m. match-up. Longwood will close day two of the tournament with an 11:15 p.m. game with hosts UNLV.
The Lancers found themselves playing from behind early, as Portland State jumped out to a 2-0 lead after three and a half innings of play. The Vikings brought in an unearned run in the second on a throwing error and padded their lead to two on a RBI single from Katie Stokes. Longwood jumped on the board in the bottom of the third inning, on a two out double to left center by Caitlin Hooe/Richmond (Douglas Freeman) scoring Kristina Garrison/Alexandria (Mount Vernon) from first base.
After a three run fourth inning by the Vikings, Longwood was able to make up for two of the runs, as Ryan Washington/Bealeton (Liberty) and Katilyn McKeown/Gordonsville (Orange County) came in on a fielder’s choice and error by the first baseman to bring the Lancers within two runs. Washington got the Lancers going with a lead-off single, and was followed by a double from the bat of McKeown to put runners on second and third with no one out. After Nicole Hamill/Greenville, N.C. (Farmville) grounded out to the pitcher, Garrison hit a deep ground ball to the shortstop and was out at first. On that same play the Vikings’ first baseman tried to throw out the Lancer runners but threw the ball away scoring McKeown and putting the score at 5-3 after four full innings.
The Lancers and Vikings exchanged runs in the fifth inning as Portland State’s Mandy Hill homered to left field and Camille Ketsdever’s/Irvine, Ca. (Irvine) double in the bottom of the inning, brought in Hooe to put the score at 6-3 after five.
The six inning brought in Catelyn Slagle/Chesapeake (Greenbrier Christian Academy) to relieve Ashley Forsyth/Freehold, N.J. (Freehold), who finished the day with six runs, only two were earned, on nine hits in five innings of work. With Portland State up 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth, the Lancers loaded the bases with one out and Betterton hit a single to centerfield to score Washington and keep the bases loaded. With two outs, Garrison hit a single through the right side, bringing in McKeown from third and cutting the deficit to 7-5 with the top of Longwood’s line-up coming up. After Hooe was hit by a pitch to bring in Radford and cut the core to 7-6, Ketsdever came to the plate an earned a walk to bring in the tying run and cap off the four run sixth inning.
The Vikings’ bats however came alive in the seventh inning as Hill recorded her second homerun of the day to give Portland State the lead for good and the 8-7 win. Slagle finished the contest with two runs on three hits in two innings of play.
