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March 22, 2008 De La Cruz Sparks Win
Belmont, CA—The Brigham Young University Hawaii softball team split a Pacific West Conference doubleheader for the second day in a row on the road today, winning the first game against Notre Dame de Namur 6-5 in eight innings before dropping the second game 6-4. The Seasiders, who were designated the home team by the conference for today’s games, scored with one out in the bottom of the eighth to win the opener and left two runners on in the bottom of the seventh in the second game after rallying for three runs in the inning. In game one, the Seasiders trailed 4-1 in the top of the second inning when Crystal De La Cruz relieved starter Bettye Doering on the mound and held the Argonauts to just two hits the rest of the way. BYU–Hawaii had scored a single run in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Doering and tied the game in the fifth on Doering’s third home run of the season, a three-run shot. Notre Dame de Namur broke through for a run in the top of the seventh but the Seasiders scored an unearned run in the bottom of the inning on a bases-loaded walk to Athena Salinas to tie the game and send it to extra innings. Melissa Lehano led off the bottom of the eighth for the Seasiders with a double, was sacrificed to third by Leslie Fester, and scored on De La Cruz’ RBI single to secure her pitching win. BYU–Hawaii fell behind early in game two and couldn’t quite recover. The Seasiders scored a solo run in the second inning on Kahealani Alohikea-Betham’s fourth homer of the season, but trailed 6-1 entering the bottom of the seventh. Kim Artiaga led off with a single before being forced at second on Margaret Gnadt’s fielder’s choice. Katresha Veazie doubled to put runners at second and third before Brooke Perriton grounded out to score Gnadt. Lehano then singled Veazie home followed by a single by Fester. De La Cruz singled to drive home Lehano to cut the deficit to 6-4. Doering then blasted a couple of long drives over the fence that went foul before striking out to end the game. De La Cruz ended the day with four hits and two RBI’s for the Seasiders while Lehano picked up three hits and three runs scored and Doering drove in four runs. BYU–Hawaii now stands at 7-22 for the season and 4-8 in the PacWest while Notre Dame de Namur improved to 15-16 overall and 7-5 in the conference. The Seasiders will play Dixie State in St. George,
Utah on Monday and Tuesday in a pair of conference doubleheaders.
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