ALAMOSA, Colo. - The Regis University softball team (7-8, 2-0 RMAC) opened Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) play by facing the Adams State Grizzlies (3-8, 0-2 RMAC) in a weekend doubleheader. The Rangers brought the heat in game one as freshman pitcher
Kylie Harpman logged her first shutout. The closer was just as exciting as RU posted a season-high 16 runs.
Game One | How it Happened: The bats were buzzin' early for Regis as the team started to pour it on in just the second inning. A pair of errors from ASU allowed senior
Madison Flores and freshman
Miia Campos to reach home plate, making the score 5-0 in favor of the Rangers.
Not slowing down, Regis added another two runs in the third and fourth to inflate their lead to 7-0.
In the fifth, RU kept it going when freshman
Mia Moore and senior
Jessi Case had RBI singles, putting them in great position to mercy the Grizzlies.
Harpman and the defense retired the first two batters before Adams had a single. But the ensuing batter grounded out to Flores, sealing the quick 9-0 victory for the Rangers.
Game Notes: Harpman (3-3) has now posted a season-high eight strikeouts in back-to-back games. She allowed just three hits in five innings of work and 18 at-bats.
Graduate student
Allisha Martinez was a perfect 3-3 in the batter's box.
Case was 2-4 d had two RBI.
Moore and Campos both had two RBI as well.
Freshman
Rachel Williams had a game-high eight putouts.
Game Two | How it Happened: Game two began the same way the opener did. The Rangers put up six runs in three innings as the squad was looking for another run rule.
With sophomore
Megan Loveland pitching in the circle for Regis, ASU responded with a quartet of runs in the third inning to make the score 6-4 in favor of RU. But in the fourth inning, the Rangers erased those runs when Raper, the dual-threat athlete, had a RBI single and senior
Shelby Shepherd had a huge two RBI triple.
Later in the fifth with Regis on top 8-6, more runs crossed home plate for the Rangers. Raper's RBI single capped a four-run inning for RU, making the score 12-6.
Sophomore
Carryn Leto put an exclamation mark on the win when she bombed a three RBI triple down the right field line to give the Rangers a seventh inning 16-8 lead.
ASU put up a few desperation runs in their final at-bat, but Harpman came in the game to retire the side. When the dust settled, Regis won the closer by a margin of 16-10.
Game Notes: Raper (2-0) got her second win of the season as she struckout four Grizzlies and had just three earned runs credited to her.
Case was 4-6 and had a RBI.
Williams produced three hits in five at-bats and also had a RBI.
Leto was 3-4 and had a career-high three RBI.
Regis produced 25 combined runs in the two games. The 16 runs scored in the closer was the team's season-high thus far.
Here's what Head Coach
Nicole Thompson had to say about the team's performance, "We put up 25 runs today because our whole line up contributed. It was great to see the bottom of our line up, Jordy (Simonsgaard) and Carryn (Leto), come up with big situational hits. The top of our line up did their thing in production as well."
She continued, "I am very proud of this team today. They came out ready to play and were on a mission. We had some very important and clutch hits today by several players."
"Our defense worked well behind our pitchers. On the mound, Kylie (Harpman) really set the tone for the day for us. It was awesome to see our whole staff work together in the second game as well."
Up Next For The Rangers: The two teams will battle it out again tomorrow. Game times are set for 11/1 p.m. in Alamosa.
