Softball Drops a Pair at Palm Springs Classic

Friday, February 25

Palm Springs, Calif.

12:30 PM

University of Utah

Kansas (Palm Springs Classic)

2/25/2005 12:00 AM | Softball

Feb. 25, 2005

Oklahoma State vs. Utah Box Score
Kansas vs. Utah Box Score

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - The University of Utah softball team dropped back-to-back games in falling to Oklahoma State, 3-2, and Kansas, 2-1 (8), here at the Palm Springs Classic this afternoon.

Utah (5-7) loses its fifth straight game and its fourth straight one-run game.

Ivette Hernandez was one of the few bright spots this afternoon. The junior first baseman paced the offense in going 3-for-4 (.750) at the plate, plating three RBI, scoring a run and racking up a 1.500 slugging percentage. She also walked twice and was hit by a pitch. Only four other Utes tallied a hit over the two games.

Utah returns to action in sunny and warm Palm Springs tomorrow for day two of the tournament. The Utes play Bethune Cookman and Mississippi State in action tomorrow afternoon.

Oklahoma State 3, Utah 2

The Utes rallied in game one but couldn't erase a 3-0 OSU lead after its two-run fifth inning. In the bottom of the sixth, Hernandez hit a two-run home run deep to centerfield but that was all the offense Utah had as it went down 1-2-3 in its final at bat.

The Cowgirls tapped Ute hurlers for six hits to Utah's three in chalking up the win. Pitcher Lindsie Nielsen, who falls to 3-3 for the season, fanned three and walked four. She scattered four hits before being relieved by Samantha Schroeder in the fifth.

Hernandez was the lone Ute successful at the plate. She was 2-for-2 with her two-RBI home run.

Kansas 2, Utah 1

The Jayhawks posted runs in the sixth and eighth innings to stage a come-from-behind, extra-innings 2-1 win over the Utes.

Brianna Gourdin suffers the loss in tumbling to 2-3 on the year. She didn't walk a single Jayhawk but allowed eight hits and whiffed two KU batters. Utah tallied five hits in the loss.

Leading the way at the plate was Bryanne Durrence and Hernandez. Durrence was 2-for-4 while Hernandez was 1-for-2 with an RBI. Diana Phillips was another batter of note, going 1-for-3 with a run scored.

Tied at one after seven innings, the international tie-breaker rule went into effect after the seventh. KU took advantage of it, plating the game-winning run on a single to left. Utah got Lyman to third in the bottom of the eighth, but no further.

Utah was the aggressor at the onset of the afternoon's second game. It jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning thanks to an RBI single by Hernandez. However, it took KU six innings to counter but it did with an RBI double in the sixth to tie it at one.

Utah had runners in scoring position in each of the first six innings and in the eighth. But, the Utes were only able to capitalize on it in the first, leaving 12 runners on for the game.