PUEBLO, Colo. – Black Hills State softball dropped a pair of tight matchups at CSU Pueblo, falling 9-8 in extra innings, and 5-3 Monday afternoon.
The Yellow Jackets’ (5-34, 5-34 RMAC) offense came alive in game one with eight runs on 10 hits, while also adding eight hits in game two, totaling 18 hits on the day including five for extra bases.
Game One (L, 9-8, 8 inn.)
Kayla Lee went 5-5 in game one with a triple, an RBI and two runs scored.
Sydney Barner checked in with a pair of hits, including a double, and an RBI and run scored.
Ashlynn Pauwels also hit a double, driving in two and scoring once in the game.
MiKayla Johnson had a pair of RBI in the game with a run scored, going 1-4.
Shayla Tuschen reached base four times, going 1-2 and drawing three walks while scoring once.
The Yellow Jackets exploded for seven runs on six hits in the top of the first, using RBI doubles from Barner and Pauwels, a bases-clearing single from Johnson, and a two-hit inning from Lee which included an RBI single to put BHSU ahead 7-0 in the top half of the first.
CSU Pueblo used a two-run home run to get a pair back in the bottom half of the inning to send the game into the second inning with the Yellow Jackets leading 7-2.
The ThunderWolves didn’t quit, adding two more in the third, and another in the fifth to make it a 2-run game with BHSU still leading, 7-5.
CSUP would tie the game at 7-7 in the bottom of the seventh and send the game into extra innings, where the Yellow Jackets tacked on one in the top of the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Tyler Whitlock to put the team up 8-7.
But two runs from CSUP in the bottom half of the eighth won them the game, 9-8.
Game Two (L, 5-3)
Malia Ogee had a two-RBI game with an RBI double.
Whitlock went 2-4 with a run scored, while Barner finished 1-2 with an RBI and a walk.
Also checking in with hits in the game were Tuschen, Lily Simmons and Taylor Klein, who also scored a run.
CSUP struck first in game two, taking a 1-0 lead in the first before a two-run go-ahead double down the right field line from Ogee put the Yellow Jackets on top 2-1 in the second.
The ThunderWolves would jump back out in front in the third though, 3-2 before adding on in the fourth to make it 4-2.
BHSU pulled back within one in the top of the fifth when an RBI single from Barner drove in Whitlock to make it a 4-3 ballgame.
CSUP got that run back in the bottom half of the fifth, however, before eventually going on to win by that score.
Up Next
The Yellow Jackets wrap up the 2023 season next weekend in Spearfish, as the team is set to host UC Colorado Springs on Friday, April 28 at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., and Saturday, April 29 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
