The Portland State softball team showed its fighting spirit over the weekend, hanging with Idaho State through three close games in Pocatello, but it was the Bengals who ultimately came away with the series victory. After the Vikings notched a win in the weekend’s first game, breaking a tie in the top of the eighth inning with a two-run single by Sadie Lopez, the Bengals came back with two extra-inning wins in a row. It was the first conference series loss this year for the Vikings, who now share the top spot in the Big Sky standings with Idaho State.
On Saturday, Anna Bertrand recorded yet another victory for PSU. The senior pitched a complete game to notch her 68th win, breaking the school record.
“She deserves it,” head coach Tobin Echo-Hawk said of the achievement. “It’s a great accomplishment. If you asked her, she’d just dismiss it, say, ‘I didn’t pitch the best weekend or have the best game,’ but that’s what makes her so great…that she strives to be better every time.”
The Vikings got on the board quickly in Game 1, scoring a run in the top of the first, but Idaho State came back in the third to score three runs of their own. The teams struggled to gain an advantage from there, and in the bottom of the fifth found themselves tied at 5-5. No runs were scored until the top of the eighth, when sophomore shortstop Alicia Fine and senior designated player Alexa Morales both got on base. PSU then put two pinch runners on the base paths as freshman Brianna Celaya entered the game in place of Fine and Morales was taken out in favor of Lexi Goranson.
Sophomore right fielder Aubrey Nitschelm came up next and reached safely to load the bases, and Lopez followed her with a clean single to center field that sent Celaya and Goranson across the plate. Echo-Hawk has gotten used to this sort of performance from Lopez.
“Sadie Lopez is having a great senior year,” Echo-Hawk said. “She is doing everything that we need her to do right now, and it’s exciting to see someone have that success.”
Up by two, Bertrand took control of the circle and gave up just one hit to secure the 7-5 victory. Bertrand gave up three earned runs and 10 hits over eight innings, and struck out five batters.
The two teams battled it out again in the second meeting, remaining deadlocked at 12-12 after eight innings before the game was suspended because of darkness. They picked it up again on Sunday, and the Vikings jumped out to a 13-12 lead in the top of the ninth. That lead was quickly lost, however, as the Bengals came through with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning and then got a three-run homer from Vicky Galasso in the 10th to take the game 16-13.
Galasso carried that momentum into the third game, slamming another home run in the top of the first inning to put Idaho State up 2-0. Junior Crysta Conn responded with a two-run shot to tie the game in the fourth. The Bengals then pulled ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth before the Vikings got their first lead of the game on a home run by Carly McEachran, giving them a one-run advantage.
Idaho State tied the game with a solo home run in the seventh, and after the Vikings failed to produce a run over the next two innings the Bengals got another home run in the bottom of the ninth to take the game 6-4. The Vikings are now 1-4 in extra-inning games this year, but the team is refusing to let the setback discourage them.
“We have to stay in the moment,” Echo-Hawk said. “It wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but we learned and we are better prepared for the [conference] tournament.”
The Vikings return home to Erv Lind Stadium this weekend for a series against California State University, Sacramento.