Jacks fall twice again in Vegas

Saturday, February 14

Las Vegas, Nev.

1:30 p.m. PT

South Dakota State University

Southern Mississippi

2/15/2009 1:00:00 AM | Softball

By: SDSU Sports Info

A game that started slowly turned into a shootout, and when the dust settled, South Dakota State came up on the short end in a 9-8, 9-inning loss against Southern Mississippi on Saturday at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic outside of Las Vegas.

The Jackrabbits followed that up with a 12-3 loss to Louisville in the second game of the day.

The losses drop the Jacks to 1-7 on the season, while The Golden Eagles improve to 4-5 and the Cardinals to 8-1

Ashley Durazo led SDSU against Southern Miss by going 3-for-5 at the plate with a double, an RBI and a stolen base. Krystal Higgerson went 2-for-4 with an RBI and her first career triple.

Pam Nicholson went the distance for the Jacks, giving up 13 hits and nine runs ? five earned ? she struck out three and walked four in the loss, which drops her to 1-1 on the season.

Chelsey Evans started against Louisville and pitched 5.2 innings for the loss, which drops her to 0-3 on the season.

SDSU vs. Southern Miss.
The Golden Eagles scored first in the bottom of the first to go up 1-0, but neither team scored again until the Jacks broke out for four runs in the top of the fourth.

Ashley Durazo got things going with a one-out single before Kelsey Lunn advanced her to third with a single to center field. Durazo then came up with the rare steal of home to tie the game at 1-1, still with one out in the inning.

Krystal Higgerson came up next and drew a walk to put runners at first and second for Stacey Evans, who reached on a fielder's choice. That allowed Higgerson and Lunn to advance a base, but an error allowed Lunn to score the Jacks second run to put them up 2-1.

Dani Broshar then reached on the Golden Eagle's second miscue that scored Higgerson to give the Jacks a 3-1 lead. The fourth and final run came on a Greta Stroh single through the left side that scored Evans.

Southern Miss got one back in the bottom of the fourth and the Jacks plated one in the top of the fifth when Higgerson tripled home Lunn, who drew a two-out walk.

Down 5-2 to start their half of the fifth, the Golden Eagles rattled off three runs in the inning to tie the game at 5-5 heading into the sixth.

The Jacks manufactured a run in the top of the sixth to take the lead. Broshar walked to start the inning before Stroh sacrificed her to second. Broshar advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring on Morgan McCabe's first career hit and RBI that put SDSU up 6-5.

The score remained 6-5 until the bottom of the seventh. Just one out away from snapping a six game winning streak, The Golden Eagle's Courtney Hill smacked a pinch-hit homerun over the right field wall to tie the game at six and force extra inning.

Undaunted, the Jacks came back with a two runs in the top of the eighth to go back on top 8-6.

Using international rules for a tie, Stroh started the inning on second base and got to third on a McCabe sacrifice bunt and then scored two batters later on a wild pitch.

Brooke Postma followed with a walk and then scored on a Durazo double before the rally ended with the Jacks up 8-6.

Southern Miss wasted little time advancing its runner at second base, as she scored on the first batter of the inning. The Jacks would get two outs, but the Golden Eagles would still manage to score a run to tie the game at eight and force the ninth.

The Jacks could not get a run across in their half of the ninth and the Jacks threw out a runner at home, but they eventually pushed the winning run across with a single to center that ended the game.

SDSU vs. Louisville
Six different Jackrabbits collected a hit apiece against Louisville, including the first career homerun for Morgan McCabe, but the Cardinals pounded out 13 hits and plated seven runs in the sixth to secure the win.

The Cardinals score two runs in the first and two more in the third to take a 4-0 lead heading into the SDSU half of the third. McCabe got the Jacks on the board with a leadoff homer in the third, but the Jacks did not score again until the sixth.

Louisville score a single run in the fifth before its seven run sixth put them up 12-1 heading into Jacks half of the sixth.

Needing five runs to extend the game, the Jacks could only muster two runs. Durazo got an RBI the hard way when she was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded before Broshar reached on a fielder's choice score the second run. The rally fell short after that and the game ended with the Jacks on the losing end.

SDSU plays its final game in the tournament on Sunday, when it squares off against perennial power UCLA, who entered the week ranked 4th in the NFCA/USA Today coaches poll.