SPEARFISH, S.D. – Mother Nature cooked up her best weather weekend yet of the softball season, but it was the visiting Skyhawks of Fort Lewis College (12-27, 10-20 RMAC) who left with a pair of wins over the Black Hills State University softball team (12-25, 11-21 RMAC) on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Yellow Jacket Field.
GAME 1: FLC 2, BHSU 0
PITCHING DECISIONS:
Win: Aimee Shanks (6-14)
Loss: Laci Peskey (5-11)
If you like pitching, Game 1 in the sun today was your game. Both starting pitchers allowed a combined eight hits, but it was the Skyhawks who pushed a pair of runs across in the sixth inning to steal a win to open the series.
Laci Peskey (Fr., Waller, Texas) was dominant in the circle today, sitting down the first eight Skyhawk hitters she faced to start the game.
The Yellow Jacket bats were kept quiet by the Fort Lewis ace, who scattered just three BH hits over the seven innings.
The Skyhawks capitalized on a pair of singles to lead-off the sixth inning with a two-out double down the line in what proved to be the only runs of a well-pitched ball game.
GAME 2: FLC 7, BHSU 4
PITCHING DECISIONS:
Win: Hailie Mann (6-13)
Loss: Malaya Coleman (2-4)
The bats would wake up in Game 2 for Black Hills State, but it would prove to not be enough as Fort Lewis would take the sweep on the day with a 7-4 Game 2 victory.
The first runs of the game would be for the home squad, as Black Hills State took advantage of a pair of Skyhawk errors in the second. However, Fort Lewis would plate three runs themselves in the next half inning to take the 3-2 lead, a lead they would not surrender the rest of the way.
The fourth inning saw FLC put one more run up to take a 4-2 lead, but a Shayla Tuschen (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) home run in the bottom half would once again make it a one-run game at 4-3.
Three more runs in fifth for Fort Lewis would make it 7-3 after five full innings.
Tyler Whitlock (Jr., Erie, Colo.) would send a missile down the left field line for the second BHSU home run of the day, cutting the deficit to three at 7-4. The Yellow Jackets would put runners on second and third in their final at-bat of the day, but be unable to push across any runs in the seventh.
