Marauders Sweep Jackets’ Home Opener (3/7/07)
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

BILLINGS, MT – Three home runs by University of Mary’s Kaitlyn Richardson lifted the Marauders to a doubleheader sweep of Montana State-Billings in non-conference softball action Wednesday.  The Marauders won the first game 5-4 in eight innings and the second game 5-3 to improve to 13-5.  The Yellowjackets lost their home opener for the first time in school history and dropped to 9-13.

In the first game the Yellowjackets manufactured a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Aysha Maddox (Richland, WA) hit a sac fly to left field to score Lorel Palmer (Ogden, UT).  Palmer led off the inning with a single and was moved around by a sac bunt and a Terina Stacks (Washougal, WA) single.

The Marauders tied the game with a run in the top of the fourth and took the lead with another run in the fifth.  Both runs were scored with two outs.  With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Marauders were on the verge of sealing the win when second baseman Meghan Ward booted a ground ball by Leslie Davis (Federal Way, WA), allowing Megan Moeller (Ontario, OR) to score to tie the game and force extra innings.

Mary loaded the bases in the top of the eighth, but was caught in a double play on an infield pop up.  With two outs and two on, Richardson sent a first pitch offering from Rebekah Tsatsa (Eagle, ID) over the fence in left-center field.  The Marauders then hung on in the bottom half of the eighth after Stacks hit a two-run shot to pull the Jackets within a run.  The homerun was the team-leading fifth of the year for Stacks.  Maddox and Steph Gosselin (Victoria, BC) reached base following the Stacks home run, but Mary’s Hatty Rossow was able to induce two ground ball outs to end the game.

Tsatsa went the distance for the Jackets, allowing seven hits and four earned runs to fall to 3-6.  She struck out a season-high seven and walked four.  Stacks had two of the Yellowjackets’ six hits, driving in two RBIs and scoring a run.  Richardson was only 1-for-4, but she drove in three runs, including the game winner.  Rossow earned the win, giving up two earned runs in eight innings.

The Jackets again jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning of game two when Jessica Frank (Great Falls, MT) scored on a two-out throwing error.  Yellowjacket starter Lisa Moore (Bakersfield, CA) cruised through the first four innings, giving up just four singles.  The Marauders finally got to Moore for four runs in the top of the fifth.  The inning was highlighted by another three-run, two-out home run from Richardson. 

Moore (3-4) gave up seven hits and four runs in 4 2/3 innings before being relieved by Lindsey Trenary (Helena, MT).  Trenary went 2 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and a run.  That run was a solo home run by Richardson in the top of the seventh.

Trailing 5-1, the Jackets made things interesting with two runs in the bottom half of the seventh, but the Marauders’ Sarah Moder eventually worked out of the jam with three groundouts.  Moder allowed six hits and walked six, but the Yellowjackets stranded nine runners in the game.

Richardson was 2-for-4 with four RBIs.  Michelle Meza went 3-for-4.  The Jackets’ six hits came from six different players, and all six were singles.

MSU Billings hits the road for their Heartland Conference opener on Friday at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO.  They will play doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday.  The Jackets are on the road for conference games the next three weekends before returning home on March 31 to host Texas-Permian Basin.