Ehnes Dominates in Yellowjacket Season Finale Victory (May 2, 2004)
Box Score

BILLINGS, MT – Junior pitcher Joey Ehnes struck out a dozen Northern Colorado batters on Sunday, carrying the Yellowjackets to a 4-0 win over the Bears in the season finale for both teams.  Ehnes, a junior from Great Falls, Mont., finished the season with 261 strikeouts and 21 victories, both school records.  The Yellowjackets improved to 27-28 overall with the four-game sweep of the Division I Bears.  UNC fell to 6-32.

“Joey’s rise ball is as good as anyone’s in Division II because she’s able to locate it,” said Yellowjacket head coach Jeff Aumend.  “Plus, her other pitches have just gotten better.  Not only was Joey dominating today, but our entire pitching staff kept their two big hitters inside the park all weekend.  They’ve got two players who have combined for 15 home runs, so that’s a credit to both Joey and Megan McCrae (who had two wins on Saturday).”

The Yellowjackets gave Ehnes all the run support she would need with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning.  With the bases loaded, Theresa Campbell singled to score Cami Rainey for a 1-0 lead.  Two batters later, Sara Hanley reached on an error by the shortstop to plate Layne Pavey. 

MSU Billings added two insurance runs in the second inning on a two-out rally.  Anna Henderson started things rolling with a single to left.  Pavey followed with a single through the left side to move Henderson to second.  Campbell then doubled off the left field fence, just missing a home run to drive in Henderson and Pavey.

Campbell, who had struggled at the plate in recent weeks, was 2-for-2 with three RBI on the day.  She finished the season third on the team with 23 RBI.  Henderson went 2-for-3 with a run scored to finish her first season as a Yellowjacket with a .265 batting average and 16 runs scored.  Christy Wankel also went 2-for-3 at the plate.

The Bears’ Stacey Moon (1-11) pitched a solid game, but was done in by errors and timely hitting.  She spread eight hits over six innings, but two of the four runs scored against her were unearned. 

Home runs have punctuated the Yellowjackets’ 11 wins in their final 13 games with 17 long balls coming during that stretch.  But Ehnes was the story of the day Sunday, missing her career best for strikeouts by one.  She struck out a school record 13 on two occasions earlier this season. 

Ehnes (21-16) scattered two hits over seven innings and started the game with seven strikeouts over the first three innings to handcuff the Bears’ offense.  UNC’s Erika Trujillo doubled in the first inning, and Stephani Miller singled in the top of the sixth for the Bears’ only hits of the day.

Ehnes wraps up the season as the second-best pitcher in the PacWest Conference in most statistical categories.  She is second for victories (21), strikeouts (261), opposing batting average (.211) and innings pitched (232).  The only player ahead of her in each category is two-time conference pitcher of the year Angela Slaugh from Western New Mexico.

Ehnes also produced on the offensive side of the plate this season, leading the team in RBI (30) and tying Rainey for the team lead in runs scored (29).  Along with being one of the top hurlers in the PacWest, Ehnes ranked second for runs scored, sixth for total hits (48), third for RBI, eighth for doubles (9), fifth for total bases (74) and tied for second for home runs (5).

Rainey beat out Hanley for the team batting title, finishing with a .315 average to rank sixth in the PacWest.  Hanley finished at .308, tenth in the PacWest.  Rainey also ranked eighth in the conference for slugging percentage (.479), second for runs scored (29), second for total hits (52), fourth for doubles (12), third for home runs (5), second for total bases (79) and second for sacrifice bunts (11).  Hanley edged Rainey for the most total hits in the conference with 53.

With no seniors on the roster, the Yellowjackets will return their entire roster next year.  Six players finished the season with batting averages over .250 and nine players combined for a PacWest-best 32 home runs.  Pavey finished the season as the conference home run champion with eight, including three against Northern Colorado on Saturday.

“The league that we’re in is highly competitive, and the region we’re in is arguably the best region in Division II,” said Aumend.  “We expected our nine juniors to become seasoned veterans and carry us.  We just didn’t know when that would happen.  As a group, they played well all year long, but they played exceptionally well down the stretch.  We finished the year as one of the best offensive teams in our conference, and we have a great building block for next year.”