ST. GEORGE, Utah – The Metropolitan State University of Denver softball team struggled with some inconsistent hitting on Thursday on the first day of the Dixie State Courtyard Marriott Classic in St. George, Utah, leading to a pair of losses to open the tournament. The Roadrunners lost the opening contest to Central Washington, 9-0, before suffering a heartbreaking defeat to Western Washington, 3-2, in their second game of the day.
"Our offense needs to get going, plain and simple," MSU Denver head coach
Annie Van Wetzinga said Thursday night. "We need to shore up defensively also. Our pitchers can be better and sharper, obviously, but also we need to make the routine plays behind them so if there is a big hit, there's not a big inning."
Offense was hard to come by in the opener as MSU Denver managed two hits in a game that was delayed for nearly two and a half hours due to field conditions during the fourth inning. A big first inning for the opponent was MSU Denver's kryptonite once again, as the Wildcats got off to a quick four run-lead thanks in part to one of Sydney Brown's two homers on the day, the first a three-run shot. Central Washington took a 7-0 lead to the top of the fifth and added a two-run double in the fifth to force the eight-run rule.
The Roadrunners were scheduled to step back on field No. 4 at the Canyons Softball Complex at 3 p.m. MT, but the game started two hours behind schedule due to the delay in the opener. Game two was a different story, as the MSU Denver bats got going early to score two in the first. Junior shortstop
Darby McGhee (Camarillo, Calif./Adolfo Camarillo) singled in senior second baseman
Ashlee Kim (Castle Rock, Colo./Douglas County), then Western Washington's rightfielder booted a single from senior catcher
Jasmine Wessel (Thornton, Colo./Horizon) to score McGhee.
The Vikings responded by grinding out one run each in the second and third inning, tying the game at two. The second run came on a wild 8-2-4-2, inning-ending double play that featured heads-up plays from Kim and Wessel to put a quick halt to a Viking rally.
Freshman pitcher
Julia Heitz (Queen Creek, Ariz./Queen Creek) held Western Washington to just one hit over the next three innings, and the Roadrunners came to bat in the seventh with a chance to strike. Wessel, who was 2-for-3 on the day, punched a leadoff single into left center field. Sophomore
Koryna Wright (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Rancho Cucamonga) followed with a pinch-hit gapper to left center for a double, but freshman
Ari Valdez (Denver, Colo./John F. Kennedy) – pinch-running for Wessel – was gunned down at home.
Freshman first baseman
JJ Sheppard (Fountain Valley, Calif./Fountain Valley) promptly singled to left, advancing pinch-runner
Alyssa Richter (Thornton, Colo./Mountain Range) to third. Two Roadrunners struck out back-to-back to end the inning, however, stopping the rally.
Heitz continued her strong start into the seventh, forcing a flyout to left and punching out another Viking before pinch-hitter Emily Benson stepped to the plate with two outs and hit a walk-off no-doubter to left-center field to hand MSU Denver a heartbreaking loss.
Despite the tough ending, Heitz was very solid in her second start of the year with two earned runs over 6 2/3 innings. Through six games this season, she leads MSU Denver with a 3.07 ERA and an impressive WHIP of just 0.98.
"She's a gamer, likes to be out there in the moment and compete, and that's really the most important thing," Van Wetzinga said of the freshman hurler. "You need to have somebody that wants to compete and have the ball in her hand, and that's her."
The Roadrunners aim to put Friday's disappointing results behind them and come out fiery on Saturday.
"Tomorrow's a new day," Van Wetzinga said. "The only thing you can do is keep competing and playing hard. That's what we're going to ask them to do, and hopefully we can make some adjustments within that."
MSU Denver will play Hawai'i-Hilo at 12:30 p.m. Friday in St. George before a 5:30 contest with Northwest Nazarene (Idaho).
