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Huskies continuing hard drive to playoffs
Softball team sweeps SDSU Thursday, starts off North/South duel with big wins Saturday
By Ben Dunsmoor
Published:
Monday, April 28, 2003
The SCSU softball team continued their winning ways this past week.
After snapping their eight-game winning streak Tuesday, losing 5-1 to No. 3 North Dakota State, the Huskies have won their last four conference games. They have won 12 of their last 13 games down the final stretch of the season and have improved their conference record to 7-5, moving up in the NCC standings.
A sweep of the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits Thursday at Selke Field and two reported wins at the NCC North-South Classic Part Deux in Brookings, S.D., this weekend aided the Huskies in their playoff push.
Some late game heroics by sophomore third baseman Megan Fuches powered the Huskies to their win over the Jackrabbits in game one Thursday at Selke. Fuches knocked in the game winning runs with a homer for a 2-1 Husky win.
"I was struggling at the plate before that," Fuches explained. "I just went up their thinking, 'hit the ball hard' and it went over."
SCSU held off the Jacks in the second game for an impressive 8-3 win which improved their NCC record to 5-5. Head coach Paula U'Ren said the seniors played a crucial role in bringing the conference record back to respectability.
"We needed to come out today and get ourselves back up to .500 in the conference," she said. "We were a little shaky in the first game, but we regrouped. And our seniors did a good job of leading us and coming out and taking care of business."
Saturday, SCSU caught a bus to Brookings for the second NCC North-South Classic. They were scheduled to play four tough NCC teams in Northern Colorado, Augustana, South Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha.
The first day of action was very successful for SCSU as they took care of Northern Colorado and Augie in five innings, beating both teams by the eight-run rule and shutting them out 8-0.
Junior shortstop Angie Berg was shining at the plate in both games. Against Northern Colorado she went two-for-three with three RBI's. Junior pitcher Nicole Webb pitched all five innings, striking out three Bears and allowing only two hits.
The second game against Augustana didn't start out as a blow-out, but turned into one late. The Huskies got two runs on the board in the third off a Cally Stewart single, and an error by the Vikings center fielder.
It remained at 2-0 until the fifth inning when SCSU opened up the floodgates and scored six runs, giving them the win via the eight-run slaughter rule. Berg impressed again with a three-run homer in the defensively challenged sixth. Junior first basemen Brooke Gentzler went two-for-three from the plate with two RBI's. Webb pitched a one-hitter and was again credited with the shutout.
The Huskies finished up Sunday with two tough games against the University of South Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha, who defeated SDSU Saturday 23-8. However, results of those two games weren't available when this edition went to press.
There's no doubt, however, that this final stretch has the Huskies peaking at the right time for the playoffs. Coach U'Ren pointed to some keys for the Huskies success in their late season playoff push.
"We just need to make some minor adjustments," U'Ren said. "We have to make sure we play solid defense and keep making our adjustments at the plate. We have to just continue to do the best that we can."
The Huskies have one conference doubleheader left Tuesday at the University of North Dakota against the Fighting Sioux before the postseason begins. Fuches said the Huskies have to keep bringing the winning elements together to have success.
"We just have to put it all together now," she said. "We've been practicing all season long to get to this point right here. Everybody has to be on the same page right now."
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