Lady Jackets Pull Off Upset Sweep of St. Ed’s (4/14/06)
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
Game Photos

BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings softball team combined classic small ball with a couple home runs Friday to surprise visiting St. Edward’s University in a twin-bill sweep.  The Yellowjackets manufactured a seventh-inning run in the opening game to win 1-0 then used two long balls to prevail 7-2 in the nightcap.

The Yellowjackets improved to 14-28 overall and 7-11 in the Heartland Conference.  St. Edward’s, ranked fifth in the NCAA South Central Region, dropped to 39-15 overall and 14-4 in the HLC.  The Hilltoppers entered the day with a narrow lead over Incarnate Word in the conference standings, but they have now lost four-straight conference games to fall into second place.  St. Ed’s hadn’t lost a conference game before this week, but they were swept Wednesday at St. Mary’s and Friday at MSU Billings.

“I thought our pitching was pretty sharp today,” said Yellowjacket head coach Sean McGary.  “It was nice to have two games in a row without an error, and offensively we hit pretty well.  To have all three areas click today was nice.  Those were two big wins for our kids and the program.”

The Jackets’ Terina Stacks (Fr., Washougal, WA) and the Hilltoppers’ Jennifer Bishop faced off in an old-fashioned pitchers’ dual in the first game.  Stacks (3-9) gave up just four hits without a walk in seven innings while Bishop (17-5) allowed four hits without a walk in six innings.  Of the eight hits off the two pitchers, all eight were singles.  The Yellowjackets pieced together the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to give Stacks her third win of the season.

Rachel Quarnburg (Jr., Billings, MT) started the Yellowjackets’ half of the seventh with a single up the middle.  Lorel Palmer (Jr., Ogden, UT) pinch ran for Quarnburg and was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jenna Haacke (So., Billings, MT).  After Christy Wankel (Sr., Great Falls, MT) reached on an error to move Palmer to third base, Aysha Maddox (Jr., Richland, WA) hit a short fly ball to straightaway centerfield.  McGary rolled the dice and sent Palmer from third on the catch, and she beat Jennifer Hollas’s throw to the plate to score the winning run.

Quarnburg, Wankel, Ashley Powell (Fr., Missoula, MT), and Stacks each singled for the Yellowjackets.  For St. Edward’s, Kristen Lozano, Rebecca Ray, Lindsey Heye, and Lauren Myrick recorded singles.  No player in the game had more than one hit.

St. Ed’s responded quickly to the game-one loss with a run in the top of the first inning of the second game.  Mandy Phillips hit a one-out solo shot over the centerfield fence off Yellowjacket starter Rebekah Tsatsa (Fr., Eagle, ID) for an early 1-0 Hilltoppers lead.  Tsatsa (5-7) would go on to spread eight hits over seven innings in earning her fifth win of the year.  She walked one and struck out six.

The Yellowjackets answered with a run in the bottom of the first, using another sac bunt to get the job done.  Stephanie Gosselin (Fr., Brentwood Bay, BC) led off the inning with a single up the middle.  After Anna Henderson (Sr., Frenchtown, MT) sacrificed Gosselin to second, Quarnburg slapped a single through the right side of the infield to score Gosselin.

MSU Billings broke open the game with a run in the second and three in the third.  Maddox, the hero of the first game, sent a solo shot over the leftfield fence in the bottom of the second for a 2-1 advantage.  It was Maddox’s second home run of the year.  Quarnburg followed with a three-run blast in the bottom of the third to give the Jackets a 5-1 lead.  Quarnburg now has seven homers on the season.  MSUB would add two unearned runs in the fifth inning to win going away.

Quarnburg was 3-for-4 with four RBI and a run scored in the game.  Gosselin, Maddox, and Megan Moeller (Jr., Ontario, OR) had two hits apiece for the Yellowjackets.  MSU Billings pounded out a dozen hits off three Hilltopper pitchers.  Robin Becker (15-5) took the loss for St. Ed’s after allowing six hits and five earned runs in two innings of work.

The same teams will meet again in a conference doubleheader on Saturday.  First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at Cenex Stadium.