SAN DIEGO, California — The Thunderbirds continued the San Diego tournament with a single game against the Boise State Broncos on Saturday afternoon. Southern Utah battled to the end, taking the late lead and holding on for an 8-7 victory. This brings the T-Birds' season record to 4-6 with one game left to play this weekend.
Taralyn Ollison led the Thunderbirds with four hits on the day, including a triple and an RBI. Freshman McKenzy Becerra picked up two hits and three RBIs in the game, including her second home run of the season. Freshman Avery Nielson earned the win in the game, coming in late to slow down the Boise State offense and picking up three strikeouts in 3.1 innings of work.
Coach Don Don Williams Said
"We showed a lot of toughness today. Every time Boise State answered, our team responded right back. I'm proud of the way we competed through all seven innings. Taralyn set the tone at the plate, McKenzy came up with some huge swings in big moments, and Avery really settled things down for us in the circle. That's a total team win and a big step forward for this group."
Game Summary
Boise State opened the scoring with a home run in the bottom of the first inning, but the T-Birds answered quickly, scoring two runs in the top of the second to take the lead.
The Broncos tied it back up in the bottom of the third inning on another home run, knotting the score at 2-2. They added another run to take the 3-2 lead before the Thunderbirds could get the stop.
Patience came into play as a hit by pitch and a walk gave the Thunderbirds base runners. Michaella Salvatierra scored Isabella Knight with a hard ground ball on the infield to make the score 3-3.
Arianna Ramirez then singled to move Salvatierra to third base before McKenzy Becerra drove her in to take the lead back 4-3.
The Broncos wouldn't go away, scoring three runs to recover the lead 6-4 in the bottom of the fourth.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Taralyn Ollison scored on a passed ball before Becerra launched a two-run blast to take the lead back 7-6.
Boise State scored again to tie the game in the bottom half of the frame, setting up a battle in the final inning.
Knight walked with two outs in the top of the seventh, coming around to score the go-ahead run on a single by Ollison to give the Thunderbirds the 8-7 lead. The Thunderbirds' defense held strong for the win with a three-up-three-down bottom of the seventh.
On Deck
Southern Utah will wrap up the weekend tournament with another single game against the Broncos on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. MT. All stats will be available on suutbirds.com.
Follow Us
Stay up to date on the Thunderbird Softball team by following @SUUSoftball on Twitter and Instagram, and liking the Southern Utah softball page on Facebook.
Donate
To help support Thunderbird athletics, consider making a donation today! To learn more about how you can support, click here.
