March 26, 2008

Box Score | Photo Gallery

LOGAN, Utah - After extending its season win streak to three in a row and winning a home opener for the first time in four years with a 3-1 victory in the first game, Utah State softball dropped the second game, 9-4, in a doubleheader with in-state foe Utah Wednesday afternoon at a chilly LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field.

Wednesday was the first home action this season for the Aggies after 22 games on the road and USU improved to a palindromic 21-12 in home-openers.

The results move Utah State's season ledger to 6-18 while UU improves to 17-16. The first game triumph snapped the Aggies' three-game losing skid to the Utes and was just Utah State's second win over Utah in the last 14 meetings as the Utes now hold an 83-54-1 all-time series lead.

Freshman SS Kelly Kaneshiro extended her hitting streak to six games, a new team-best for USU this season, as she was 1-for-2 with a run scored in game one and was 1-for-4 with two runs scored in the nightcap. Sophomore CF Emily Reilly was 2-for-2 in the opener, belting a solo home run to left center to lead off the Aggies' third.

In the circle, junior hurler Lindsey Benson went the distance in game one, firing a season-high 10 strikeouts, one shy of her career-best of 11 done last year, while yielding only four hits and allowing only one run. Benson also started the second game, going five and a third innings by giving up five runs on nine hits and took the loss. The split moves Benson's season ledger to 6-13.

After Benson set the Utes' side down in order in the top of the first, Reilly led off the home half of the frame with a single. After junior LF Mikey Price reached on a fielder's choice to move Reilly to second, both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch. Reilly was later thrown out at home trying to steal on a passed ball, but junior 1B Aubrie Stroman drove Price in with a sac fly to center to put the Aggies on the board.

Reilly's round-tripper in the third gave USU a 2-0 lead before Utah plated a run in the top of the fourth, as Devina Quintero had a double down the right field line to drive in Angie Boardman who had reached on a walk.

Benson quieted the Utah bats after that, only allowing two hits the rest of the game and got an insurance run in the fifth as the Aggies took advantage of two Utah errors after Kaneshiro laced a double down to the left field corner.

The second game opened scoreless for the first two innings before Utah scored in the top of the third on a Bonnie Muir single followed by a Diana Phillips triple.

USU countered with a run in the bottom of the third, as freshman pinch runner Jessica Law scored off a Utah error to knot the score at 1-1. The Utes added another run in the visitor's fourth on an RBI double by Quintero, and tacked on two runs in the fifth after a Muir two-run home run to center.

The Aggies got two runs back in the fifth on a two-run double by Stroman, but the Utes added a run in the sixth on an RBI-double of their own from Andrea Hoffman for a 5-3 lead. Utah broke the game open in the top of the seventh after an RBI-single by Kara Foster followed by a three-run Quintero home run.

Utah State managed to plate a run in its last at bat after a Kanershiro double and a Utah error off the bat of Stroman allowed Kaneshiro to dash around and score, but the rally and the game ended with two Aggies left on base.

USU returns to the diamond on Friday and Saturday, hosting 13th-ranked Fresno State in the Aggies' Western Athletic Conference home opener. Utah State will take its 0-3 conference record into Friday's single game at 3 p.m. and Saturday's twinbill at 1 p.m. against Fresno State's 30-5 overall record and this weekend is the Bulldogs' conference opening action.

Admission to all of USU home games at LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field is free to the public.