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March 4, 2008 Seasiders Come So Close
Laie, HI—The Brigham Young University Hawaii softball team went down to the last out with a chance to win in both games of a Pacific West Conference doubleheader with Grand Canyon today before falling a run short in each game. The Seasiders couldn’t hold the lead in a 5-4 first-game loss and couldn’t tie the game in a 2-1 second-game defeat. The Seasiders, who were designated as the visiting team in both games by the conference, rallied for two runs in the top of the seventh inning of the first game to take a 4-3 lead into the bottom half. Grand Canyon got runners on first and second with two outs before Sydney Reyes hit a fly ball to center that fell just over the head of Kerissa Clifford for a game-winning, two-run double. Grand Canyon took a 2-0 lead in the second inning but the Seasiders came back with a run in the third on an RBI fielder’s choice by Melissa Lehano. The Antelopes came back with another run in the fourth but BYU–Hawaii answered again with a single run in the sixth when Lehano doubled and later scored on an RBI groundout by Kim Artiaga. Lehano then capped the Seasiders’ seventh-inning rally with her third hit of the day, a triple, to drive in Athena Salinas, who had walked with two outs, and Clifford, who had followed with a single. Bettye Doering went the distance for the Seasiders on the mound. In game two Grand Canyon scored single runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to take a 2-0 lead into the last inning. The Seasiders rallied when Lehano led off by reaching base on an error. She then stole second and advanced to third on a Leslie Fester single. Fester was forced at second on a Margaret Gnadt fielder’s choice to third and Lehano had to stay at third. Artiaga then hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Lehano with Gnadt advancing to second on the throw home. Doering followed with a hard grounder to third that Antelope third baseman Erica Ritter snared and lunged to tag a diving Gnadt to end the game. Katresha Veazie scattered six hits and gave up just one earned run on the mound for the Seasiders. Fester collected three of BYU–Hawaii’s eight hits in the game. Lehano scored twice and drove in three runs in the twinbill to have a hand in all five of the Seasiders’ scores. BYU–Hawaii now stands at 3-18 for the season and 2-6 in the PacWest while Grand Canyon improved to 9-8-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference. BYU–Hawaii will face Hawaii Pacific on March 15th in Laie beginning at 12:00 pm HST in a non-conference doubleheader.
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