FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The University of Utah softball team closed out the regular season with a 7-1 loss to Colorado State on Saturday.
With a 10-10 conference record, the Utes will finish the season in third place.
Utah's (28-27) lone run of the game came in the second inning. Sharee Fonoti walked to lead off the inning, and scored on a single up the middle by Staci Hemingway.
The Rams (29-22, 9-11 MWC) got two home runs and four RBIs from Julia Kloppe.
On Friday, the Utes dropped a 7-5 decision to the Rams, who scored all seven of their runs in the second inning, fueled by a grand slam from Lauren Cusick.
Devina Quintero and Angie Boardman each had two hits for Utah.
Boardman, Staci Hemingway and Kara Foster each had doubles for the Utes.
BYU: The Cougars (42-18, 14-6) came from behind to record a 8-4 win over New Mexico in the regular season finale Saturday night.
With the win the Cougars sealed a second-place finish in the Mountain West Conference. San Diego State took the championship at 15-5.
"It has been an incredibly exciting conference season, with the final decision coming down to the last day of competition," BYU head coach Gordon Eakin said.
The Cougars end their season 42-18 and await NCAA selections, which will be announced today at 8 p.m.
SOUTHERN UTAH: The Thunderbirds' five-year streak of winning either its regular-season or conference tournament championship came to an end Saturday as Western Illinois finished off Friday's suspended game with a 7-2 win, then IPFW ended the Thunderbirds' season in an elimination game, 6-4, at The Summit League tournament.
Southern Utah, the defending conference tournament champion, won regular season titles in 2003, 3004, 2005 and 2006, and the tournament championship in 2006 and 2007, but it will be Western Illinois which will advance to the NCAA tournament this year.
The fourth-seed Westerwinds earned the NCAA bid by virtue of a 3-0 run through the tournament which included a 9-7 win over top seed Centenary in the tournament opener, the win over SUU in the suspended game, and a 17-2 romp past IPFW in the championship. WIU, the pre-season pick to win the league, won its fourth conference title and became the first fourth seed to win the conference championship.
In the first round, it took the Thunderbirds 10 innings to get past third-seed IPFW, 6-5, in its first-round game at the Summit League Tournament on Friday. Aly Daniels and Lindi Kennedy each hit solo home runs against IPFW. Daniels' RBI single scored Caroline Fernandez with the winning run in the 10th. Kristina Brooks pitched a complete game for the Thunderbirds, improving to 18-22 on the season.