Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 BRISBANE, Calif. – Academy of Art Softball exited its four-game Pacific West Conference series with BYU-Hawaii 3-1 after winning Wednesday's opener and falling in the finale. Game one featured back-to-back home runs from graduate student catcher
Nirana Singh and senior infielder
Jasmine Dickenson as the Urban Knights gained an early advantage and fended off the Seasiders for a 5-4 victory. BYUH came back with two rallies in the first three innings of game two and also outlasted numerous ART U scoring opportunities for the 8-4 win.
GAME ONEBoth starters,
Alexa Peters (6-10) and Destyni Valencia (4-14), faced scoring threats in their first inning, but neither yielded a run. For Academy of Art in that frame, senior outfielder
Haily MacDonald achieved a milestone with a steal to become the program's career stolen bases leader after coming in tied with
Elyse Cordova for 57 thefts as an Urban Knight.
The bottom of the second was the ART U breakthrough as a double by freshman infielder
Samantha Klune was followed by back-to-back homers by Singh and Dickenson. It was the second consecutive day Academy of Art hit the long ball in consecutive fashion and, with two pitches thrown, the Knights led 2-0.
Peters emerged unscathed from a bases-loaded jam in the third and proceeded to retire the side in order in the fourth. That would set up an ART U rally in the home half with sophomore outfielder
Hallie Curtis offering a sacrifice fly. The 4-0 lead then became 5-0 in the fifth when junior catcher
Elise Oldham singled in senior infielder
Kamyle Glover.
BYU-Hawaii used three walks and an error in the sixth to mount a comeback and ended up leaving the bases loaded after scoring four times to make the score 5-4 Academy of Art heading to the late innings. A leadoff single in the seventh prompted the entry of freshman
Brenna Mitchell (18-11) as a reliever and she posted the three outs needed as ART U finished with a highlight defensive play by senior infielder
Taylor Thurman throwing from her knees to first for the out. Peters would earn the win with three earned runs allowed in 6.0 innings while Mitchell picked up her second career save with a scoreless inning of work.
GAME TWOThe BYUH offense was jumpstarted quickly in the series finale as Liz Talataina hit a two-run homer in the first inning. Academy of Art got one of those runs back on a groundout by sophomore outfielder
Jessica West after three straight walks, but the one-run game did not last beyond the third as the Seasiders scored six in the inning.
What ensued was a frustrating stretch of innings with ART U leaving two on base in each of the first four frames then one in the fifth and one in the sixth. BYU-Hawaii could not add to its advantage the rest of the way and the 8-1 score carried into the seventh.
It was then that the Knights sparked a comeback, ignited by Thurman's leadoff double. Another productive out came from West who hit a sacrifice fly and later Dickenson hit an infield single which also saw BYUH commit an error to allow another run in. One more Seasider miscue gave ART U its third run of the inning, but that is as close as they would get as a flyout ended it at 8-4 BYU-Hawaii.
Academy of Art is now an even 25-25 on the year and 15-13 in PacWest play. Dickenson was 2-for-2 in game one with her third home run of the season while Singh was 1-for-2 with two RBIs and her fifth long ball. MacDonal had a steal and hits in both games to up her reached base streak to 19 games. West drove in a pair in game two and Glover finished the day 2-for-6 with two runs scored and a double to give her 14 on the year (two from tying the single-season record).
For the Seasiders (8-28, 4-22 PacWest), game two was highlighted by Sarah Captain's three RBIs and Talataina's 1-for-3 performance with two RBIs.
Four more games remain on the ART U homestand with Hawaii Pacific coming to town this Sunday, Apr. 19 for a 12:00 p.m. doubleheader.
