BASEBALL: Southern Utah surrendered six runs in the bottom of the third inning in what lead to a 10-3 defeat for the Thunderbirds at Florida International on Thursday night in Miami. The loss drops the T-Birds to 3-11 on the year while FIU moves to 11-6.
SUU put the first lights on the board as Levi Swenson led off the third inning with a double to left field and later scored on an RBI single up the middle by D.J. Andrade. However, the Panthers answered with a six spot in the bottom of the inning to take a 6-1 lead and chase SUU starter James Crockett off the mound.
The Thunderbirds made the most of a two-out walk followed by three singles to score two runs in the top of the fourth to cut into the lead, but 6-3 would be as close as the T-Birds would come. Another run in the bottom of the fifth inning and three more runs for the home team in the bottom of the eighth inning left the final score at 10-3.
Swenson's bat proved to be the hottest for Southern Utah during the game as the junior went 3-of-4 with one run and one RBI. Garrett Wittels led FIU with three RBI on a 2-of-5 performance from the plate. Crockett dropped to 0-1 with the loss, while Panthers' starter Daniel DeSimone improved to 1-1 in throwing the complete game.
The Thunderbirds will wrap up their spring break trip with a pair of games remaining against Chicago State with the two teams taking to the diamond on Friday and Saturday.
SOFTBALL: Ariel Morbeck and Aly Daniels provided the only two Thunderbird hits, while walks, hit batsmen, and four hits combined for six IPFW runs in a 6-0 Mastodon shut out win on Thursday in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Morbeck singled through the left side in the first inning. Daniels singled down the left field line in the second, but beyond that Thunderbird bats offered little response to IPFW pitcher Courtney Cronin.
The 'Dons plated single runs in the first, fourth, and fifth, including a first inning home run by Cassie Wolfe.
IPFW doubled its run output in the bottom of the sixth with three runs on one hit, three walks, and two hit batsmen.
The Thunderbirds went down one-two-three in the top of the seventh to end the game.
This weeks scheduling was altered with Southern Utah already in the area having played Toledo on Wednesday, and with anticipated storminess in Ft. Wayne later this weekend.
Instead of a Friday double-header followed by a single game on Saturday, SUU and IPFW played the single game on Thursday, and will play the Friday double-header as scheduled. Friday's game one is slated for a 1 p.m.
WOMEN'S TENNIS: UMKC won the doubles point then held Southern Utah off in singles to take a 4-2 win over the Thunderbirds in SUU's 2010 Summit League opener Thursday afternoon.
The Kangaroos got wins at second and third doubles to take a one-point advantage heading into singles, then made it stand up with wins at the bottom of the ladder and one at No. 2 to claim the win.
Suzan Lisenby and Laura Bouet took an 8-4 win over Kirrily Burden and Carmen Blanco at No. 2 doubles while Jessica Ball and Jillian Yakominich claimed an 8-3 win over Kristi Latteier and Mandie Divino at No. 3 to win the point for UMKC. With the point won, first doubles was retired with UMKC's Eva Dalvai and Chelsea Horner leading SUU's Ksusha Nazarova and Olga Tatarchenko 5-4.
The two teams then split the first four singles matches, with each team winning in straight sets. Burden and Blanco won points for SUU, getting past Horner and Lisenby at third and fourth singles by respective scores of 7-5, 6-2, and 6-1, 7-6 (7-5 in the tie-breaker). Yankovich and Holly Davis won points for the kangeroos, however, with respective wins over Latteier (6-1, 6-0) at No. 5 and Divino (6-2, 6-0)=E2=80=88at No. 6..
Down to the top two spots on the ladder SUU still had a chance to win.
At No. 1 Nazarova won her first set over Dalvai, 6-3, but Tatarchenko fell 6-1 to Bouet in the first set at No. 2. Tatarchenko rallied in set two, however, taking a 6-2 win, but Dalvai came back to get past Nazarova in the second frame, 6-4, sending both matches to a deciding set.
The match was decided when Bouet outlasted Tatarchenko in the final set, 7-5. The match at first singles was retired with Bouet holding a 4-3 edge in the final set.
SUU dipped to 3-5 and 0-1 in the Summit with the loss while UMKC evened its record at 1-1 in conference play and improved to 4-8 overall.
Earlier in the day Oral Roberts took a 4-1 win over UMKC and topped Centenary 4-0 while Western Illinois also stopped Centenary by a 4-0 count.
MEN'S GOLF: The Thunderbirds were in 17th place after the first day of the University of Denver's Desert Invitational in Goodyear, Ariz. The Thunderbirds shot 18-over par 306 to sit 27 strokes off the pace of firstr-round leader University of the Pacific, which shot 277.
Sophomores Jeff Evans and Brad Millard led the way for SUU after each finished at 2-over par 73 over the par 71, 7,015-yard Palm Valley Golf Course. Evans and Millard were tied for 50th place, while sophomore Jordan Orth was 92nd at 79, Doug Fowles was 98th at 81 and freshman Justin Bateman was 101st at 84.