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February 23, 2008 Lehano Delivers in Thriller
Laie, HI—Junior Melissa Lehano drove a clean single through the right side of the infield with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Brigham Young University Hawaii softball team a thrilling 2-1 win over Chaminade today in the first game of a Pacific West Conference doubleheader. Lehano’s hit scored Margaret Gnadt, who had reached on an error to open the inning, and gave the Seasiders their second win of the season and second in conference play. After Gnadt reached base to lead off the bottom of the seventh, the Seasiders quickly made two outs, on a strikeout and a soft fly ball. However, Kerissa Clifford was hit by a pitch and Athena Salinas walked to bring Lehano, BYU–Hawaii’s leading hitter this season, to the plate. Lehano delivered with her sixth RBI of the season to bring victory to the Seasiders and pitcher Bettye Doering, who went the distance for BYU–Hawaii while scattering seven hits and striking out two. Lehano’s game-winner was only the second BYU–Hawaii hit off Silverswords’ pitcher Kasy’e Lalau. Chaminade had taken an early lead with a run in the second inning that BYU–Hawaii answered in the third when Clifford singled and subsequently scored on a Chaminade error. The two pitchers then exchanged zeroes until Lehano’s heroics. The Silverswords took advantage of seven BYU–Hawaii errors to score seven unearned runs en route to a 13-5 win in the second game of the day. Lehano stroked a pair of hits in the second game as well, scoring twice and driving in a run as she increased her team-leading batting average to .333 for the season. Clifford also picked up her second hit of the day in the second game while Leslie Fester and Kahealani Alohikea-Betham each drove in a run. BYU–Hawaii will face the Netherlands National Team on February 29th in an exhibition doubleheader in Laie beginning at 1:00 pm HST.
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