Feb. 9, 2008
Wisconsin Box Score
BYU Box Score
St. George, UT - LMU closed out its opening weekend of play with a Saturday split at the Red Desert Classic in St. George, UT. In the day's opening game, the Lions defeated Wisconsin 7-5 in eight innings behind sophomore J.J. Hartung's walk-off homer for their third victory in their last at-bat this season. Their season-opening four-game winning streak came to an end in the afternoon, however, as the Lions suffered their first defeat of 2008, 10-0 to BYU.
LMU's already long weekend got longer when they found themselves playing their second extra-inning game in the season's first four outings. Wisconsin (1-3) rallied from a two-run deficit to tie the score 4-4 in the top of the seventh and then took the lead with a run in the top of the eighth. Dow to their last two outs, the Lions rallied. Junior Chelsie Tysdal led off with a single but the next two hitters struck out. Freshman Brittany Mayers kept the inning alive with a single, her third hit of the game and, with two outs and runners on first and second, Hartung launched her first career home run to win the game for the Lions.
Sophomore Melissa Dykema (3-0) picked up the win in 3 1/3 innings of relief work for starter Tiffany Pagano. Pagano went 4 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out four. Dykema also registered four strikeouts and gave up five hits.
Mayers finished 3-for-3 while Hartung and freshman Amy Charpentier were each 2-for-4.
Wisconsin struck first with a single run in the third inning but LMU responded in the bottom of the frame through Tysdal's two-out, three-run homer to left after singles by junior MiaSarah Cesena and Charpentier. The Lions increased their lead to 4-2 in the fourth on junior Kirsten Slouber's single to right.
A solo shot by Livi Abney in the fifth pulled a run back for the Badgers and they could have added more but Dykema came on in relief to get Tara Hiteman to ground out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Dykema got in trouble in the top of the seventh, loading the bases on two singles and a walk before an illegal pitch brought home UW's third run. A groundout then evened the score. LMU was unable to manufacture anything in the bottom of the seventh, sending the game into extra innings, where UW pulled ahead in the top of the eighth, only for the Lions to rally in the home half.
In the final game of the weekend, LMU's offense was finally shut down by the combo of BYU's Christie Zinanti and Christina Gwyn Trice. Zinanti (2-0) allowed just two hits and two walks over the first four innings and Trice cleaned up with one inning of no-hit ball. They got support from Angeline Quiocho's two-run homer in the second that opened up what would be a four-run inning. The Cougars blew the game open with six runs in the third, including back-to-back homers by Daniela Snow and Quiocho, her second of the game.
Dykema (3-1) lasted just two innings against BYU, giving up four runs on four hits while walking two. Slouber had both of LMU's hits for her fourth multi-hit game of the young season.
LMU plays at another tournament next weekend, traveling east to Riverside for the TEN Construction Tournament. The Lions will take on Creighton at noon on Friday, then play Northern Colorado and Creighton again on Saturday before closing out the weekend with the hosts UC Riverside on Sunday.
