By The Carroll Softball team couldn’t make it a clean sweep in their weekend series against Warner Pacific, but still finished a successful weekend with a 3-1 series win in Portland on Saturday.
The Fighting Saints (16-15-1, 9-8) dropped an important CCC swing game in the morning on Saturday, but peppered the Knights in the afternoon game to pick up another series win on the year.
GAME ONE:
Things appeared good for the Saints early in game one. Both Sammie Labrum (Kalispell, Mont. / SO) and Kaitlynn Ayers (Twin Falls, Idaho / SR) picked up RBI singles in the top half of the opening frame, and Carroll grabbed a quick 2-0 lead. The lead what short lived, however, as the Knights responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the first. The three runs in the opening inning was more than Warner Pac scored in either of the two games on Friday combined, and the Knights were on top, 3-2.
A Carroll response was in order in the second, with Brookelynn Jackson (Keizer, Ore. / FR) blasting an RBI double into the outfield, followed by a bases-loaded passed ball letting one more Carroll run in as the Saints reclaimed the lead at 4-3.
The Knights evened things up in the bottom of the second with a double scoring one, tying the game at 4-4 through two.
The third inning was one to forget for the Saints, as hit after hit piled up for the Knights and Warner Pacific tallied five runs on five hits to jump out to a commanding 9-4 lead.
Ayers added another RBi single in the fourth, but the Saints would get no closer than four runs. A two-run sixth inning for the Knights helped them seal the deal on an 11-5 win, just their second conference and third total of the season.
GAME TWO:
The Saints left little doubt in the second game of the day, scoring 12 runs on 14 hits to win by run-rule in the non-conference final game of the series.
Morgan Sunchild (Great Falls, Mont. / SO) provided the first run of the game with an early sac-fly, paving the way for an Abbie Amend (Spokane, Wash. / SO) two RBI double later in the frame. Layne Bauer (Missoula, Mont. / SR) brought home one more run on the next at-bat, and Carroll led 4-0 after one.
Alyssa Lybbert (Las Vegas, Nev. / JR) continued her strong weekend with a two-run double in the second and a three run double in the third inning. Sandwiched between the Lybbert doubles was a Bella Bombach (Snohomish, Wash. / FR) RBI single. A Warner Pac error allowed the Saints to plate one more in the third, and Carroll led big, 11-0.
Each team would add one run with the game well in hand, and the Saints would breeze to the 12-1 finish.
Lybbert was the player of the game for the Saints, going an impressive 4-4 at the plate with five RBI. Kati Slater (Yamhill, Ore. / SO) scored four runs, and Kenna Thomas (Belgrade, Mont. / JR) added three hits to help lead the potent Carroll attack.
A return to Helena and a showdown with Eastern Oregon at Centennial Park next weekend awaits the Saints.
Visit www.carrollathletics.com for a preview of that series, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.
