SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah women’s softball team felt fortunate to beat BYU in its three-game series opener Thursday at Dumke Family Softball Stadium.
In their second game Friday evening, everything fell into place.
Hailey Maestretti tossed a three-hit shutout and Shonty Passi, Sianni Sakai and Danika Wilson had timely hits as Utes powered past the Cougars 9-0 in a Big 12 Conference game.
Utah improved to 32-17-1 overall and 8-11-1 in conference play with less than a week left in the regular season. The Utes are also 2-0 against their rival, with the last contest of the three-game series scheduled for Saturday at 5 p.m.
Utah coach Amy Hogue was thrilled with the win because her team needed a couple of rare breaks late in Thursday’s game to rally for a 3-2 win.
Friday’s contest did not have that pressure because Maestretti did not walk a batter, retired eight straight hitters at one point and earned her fifth shutout of the season.
“Hailey got ahead of the hitters (in the count) and she didn’t have to throw what (the Cougars) expected,” Hogue said.
At the same time, BYU didn’t follow that pattern.
Cougars starting pitcher Gianna Mares gave up three walks and a single to the first four Utes and was replaced by Jada Villegas — who was dealt the loss Thursday due to a pair of late-game errors — without recording an out.
Villegas got out of the first frame Friday without much damage but she still had trouble with consistency. The Utes eventually took advantage of four more walks and hits by Passi, Sakai, Wilson, Cian Noli and Kayla Lyon.
Wilson had a run-scoring double in the third inning to give Utah a 3-0 lead, which was more than enough for Maestretti, who struck out four and did not walk a batter.
Maestretti was also helped by a double play, a nice catch on the run by her left fielder (Sakai) and several stops on hard-hit balls by the shortstop (Passi).
BYU never had a runner get past first base, and the Utes broke the game open in the fourth inning.
Mia Gomez started with a walk and Passi followed with a hard-hit double. The Utes then added three more hits, a hit batsman and a stolen base.
Finally, Sakai tripled to right-center field to score pair of runs and introduce the Big 12’s “run rule,” which ended the game.
BYU was happy to leave the Utes’ park to try to recover for Saturday’s finale. Pitching coach Pete Meredith, the former fireballer from Larry Miller’s fastpitch teams of the 1980s and 1990s, said the Cougars need to compete to have a chance.
“We’re already dealing with a lot of injuries and our pitchers can’t put themselves in a position where they’re behind in the count and everyone knows what they’re going to throw,” he said.
