Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
Los Angeles, Calif. – The
Robert Morris University softball team was tied with UC Davis late in the game, but the Aggies would score a run in their last at bat to claim a 2-1 victory over the Colonials in the final game of the day Saturday at the Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament at a hazy Easton Stadium.
After coming remarkably close to upsetting nationally ranked UCLA Friday, RMU was unable to hang with the Bruins Saturday and lost its first game of the day, 9-0 in five frames.
Senior
Chelsea Siar (Glenshaw, Pa. / Shaler Area) went 2-for-3 in the nightcap against the Aggies with a monster home run that flew over the top of the scoreboard in left field. The blast was the first of her season and the 19th of her career.
Freshman
Jordan Gurganus (Chesapeake, Va. / Hickory) was a combined 3-for-4 on the day after entering the first game as a substitute. She tallied the second multi-hit game of her rookie season in the nightcap against UC Davis.
Junior
Nicole Sleith (Smithton, Pa. / Yough) went the distance in the nightcap and allowed two runs while striking out eight batters.
The Colonials fell behind early against the host Bruins in their opener and could not recover.
After RMU went in order in the first, UCLA used five consecutive hits, all with two outs, to plate four runs.
Sophomore
Kristen Gabelt (Ligonier, Pa. / Ligonier Valley) ripped a double down the left field line and into the corner to lead off the second inning, but she would be stranded on base.
The Bruins managed a lone hit in the home half before junior
Tess Apke (Mt. Lebanon, Pa. / Mt. Lebanon) lined a single into left center in the third inning.
UCLA used four free passes and a trio of hits to score five runs in the bottom of the third inning to help put the game away.
After each team went in order in the fourth, sophomore
Ashley Gerhart (Imperial, Pa. / West Allegheny) worked a walk to start the fifth. Gurganus knocked a pinch-hit single with two outs in the inning, but a strikeout then ended the contest.
Although UCLA proved too much for RMU in the opener, the Colonials hung with the second California team it played later Saturday.
Gurganus singled with one out in the top of the first inning and moved to second base courtesy of a sacrifice but would be left there.
The Aggies used a trio of hits to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Sleith did well to limit the damage as she stranded runners at second and third by getting a strikeout and a foul out.
Sleith walked with one down in the second inning, and Siar singled one out later to put two on base, but a fly out ended the threat.
In the bottom half of the frame, junior
Samantha Santillo (Ellwood City, Pa. / Lincoln) gunned down a runner trying to steal second to help prevent a scoring chance for the Aggies. With two down, an error and a single put two on base, but Sleith notched a strikeout to end the chance.
Gurganus singled in her third straight plate appearance in the third inning, knocking one into right field, but she could not start a rally.
Each of the next three half-innings was of the 1-2-3 variety.
Siar led off the fifth inning by blasting the first pitch she saw into the trees beyond the scoreboard in left field.
A walk and a double, both with two outs, gave the Aggies a chance in the home half, but a lineout ended the frame.
With the Colonials unable to produce a base runner in the final two innings, UC Davis manufactured the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning. A hit batter, a walk, a wild pitch and a single into shallow left gave the Aggies the go-ahead run. UC Davis tried to add an insurance run later in the frame as it waved home a runner on a base hit, but Apke charged the ball and came up firing to the plate. The throw was true, and Santillo was able to slap on the tag for the out at the plate.
Unfortunately for the Colonials, that one run would prove to be the difference as RMU fell, 2-1.
The Colonials will conclude play in the UCLA-hosted event Sunday with a single game against Western Kentucky at Noon (Eastern time).
