OREM, Utah – With their Pacific Coast Softball Conference doubleheader split with Idaho State University Saturday, the Utah Valley University Wolverines were eliminated from contention from winning the PCSC Mountain Division title.
The Wolverines won Game 1 12-7, but dropped the nightcap 4-1.
UVU will now focus on heading to the Great West Conference Championships in Vermillion, S.D. on May 15-16.
UVU (19-28, 12-8 PCSC) honored its four departing seniors Kyli Flanary, Mandy Tapia, Samantha Telarroja and Meghan Yocom for their outstanding for the Wolverines.
“Athletically it’s going to be hard to replace our seniors,” UVU head coach Todd Fairbourne said. “From skill set wise to people they have been just great and I’m really going to miss them all. I’ve grown really attached to all four of them including the two junior college kids (Flanary and Tapia).
“They’ll all be hard to replace and I don’t ever know if we’ll ever replace the four-year players in Sam (Telarroja) and Meghan (Yocom),” Fairbourne said. “I’m very proud of them all and they’ve all played a major part for our program over the years. We are definitely losing four major players.”
In the Game 1 victory Telarroja led the way offensively by going 2-for-3 with a homer, triple and six RBIs. Yocom and Tapia each recorded hits as well. Yocom went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored, while Tapia finished the first game by going 1-for-3 with a run scored. Flanary went hitless as the DH in the first game and started the second one in the circle.
There was no shortage of runs in the early stages of the first game. UVU started it off with three runs in the top of the first on a three-run homer by Amanda Perez and the Bengals (16-32, 9-11 PCSC) countered with three of their own in the last of the frame.
In the second Yocom drove home Korryn Coates with an RBI single up the middle and in the third Mairaea Tanielu brought home a run via an RBI base hit, and Telarroja drove home two more by blasting a towering homer to right center field.
In the fourth, UVU loaded the bases and scored a couple runs off of bases loaded walks and hit batters as Perez and Telarroja each added another RBI each to increase the lead to 9-4
Telarroja then added three more RBIs in the sixth when she hit a bases-clearing triple to left center to put the Wolverines in front by a 12-5 score. ISU scored two more late runs.
Perez finished the game going 2-for-3 with four RBIs.
Josi Summers went the distance in the circle for the win to improve to 13-14 on the year, while ISU’s Kandis Clesson suffered the loss (13-18) in allowing eight earned runs in three-plus innings of work.
After the two teams combined four 19 runs in the first game, the second one was a different story as the two squads scored just a total of five runs.
UVU led game two 1-0 early on after Yocom singled and came around to score on a throwing error in the first. The Bengals then answered by scoring two runs in the second to take the lead and added two more in the third thanks to back-to-back solo homers from Terah Blackwell and Christina Rayner to go up 4-1.
That’s the way the game would end as Flanary and Summers for UVU and Rayner for ISU combined to put up zeros the rest of the way.
Rayner picked up the win for the Bengals to improve to 3-6 on the year ,while Flanary took the loss (6-14) by allowing three earned runs in 4 2/3 innings of work.
Yocom led the Wolverines in Game 2 by going 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
The Wolverines will conclude their regular-season Monday when they travel to Logan for a doubleheader against in-state rival Utah State beginning at 1 p.m.
http://www.wolverinegreen.com/sports/w-softbl/recaps/050711aaa.html