April 17, 2007

Box Score

OREM, Utah - Utah State softball was swept by in-state foe Utah Valley State in a twinbill Tuesday at UVSC's MSTAR Field, 7-6 and 4-2, snapping USU's season-long four-game win streak.

The two losses drop the Aggies to 14-25 overall, while UVSC improved to 20-24 and winning for the 10th time in last 13 games. With the wins, USU is now 2-4 vs. UVSC this season, as the Wolverines have won four in row and the all-time series is now tied at 5-5.

"It's very frustrating," USU head coach Candi Letts said. "We were up in the last inning of the first game and let it get away from us. We let them back in the game, and once we did that, it was hard to get the momentum back in the second game. It is very disappointing, but we have to put it behind us and get ready for this weekend's conference series."

Junior 3B Amy Schaible had a hit in both games, extending her career-long hitting streak to nine games, while senior DH Jamie Fife and junior SS Tara Evans both stretched their hitting streaks to seven games apiece.

In game one, USU was down 4-2 in the top of the fourth, when Schaible hit her second big fly in last three games and ninth home run of the year. Schaible also moved into a tie for second on the USU single-season HR list.

Four batters later, Evans blasted a three-run home run to put the Aggies ahead, 6-4. For Evans, it was her fourth home run of the season.

USU's two-run lead held up until the bottom of the seventh, when with one-out, UVSC's Heidi Boyer belted a three-run walk off home run for the game-winning runs.

The Wolverines opened the second game by plating three in the home half of the first and another in the third to go up, 4-0. The Aggies closed to 4-2 with a run in the fourth and fifth frames. Senior C Jami Uragami laced an RBI double in the fourth to score Evans, who reached on an error. In the fifth, junior 2B Whitnie Ray and Schaible had back-to-back singles, and Fife later plated Ray with an RBI single.

In the Aggie sixth, Evans and Uragami had singles, and senior RF Lauren Guzman followed with a walk to load the bases with only one out, but USU couldn't score any runs, as the next two Aggies struck out.

After UVSC went down in order in the seventh, Fife smacked a one-out single and freshman Nicole Rupp pinch ran for her. After a fly-out, Evans singled to right and Rupp was thrown out at third on the play to end the game.

The Aggies resume Western Athletic Conference action with a three-game series at San Jose State on April 20-21, before returning home to host Idaho State on Tuesday, April 24.

Admission to all of USU's home games at Johnson Field is free to the public.