Late Inning Drama Propels SFA to Doubleheader Split with Utah Valley

Friday, April 19

Orem, UT

5:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

13-33, 6-12

Utah Valley University

17-22, 10-7

Stephen F. Austin

Utah Valley

Late Inning Drama Propels SFA to Doubleheader Split with Utah Valley

4/19/2024 11:37:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Peter Trainor, Student Assistant for Strategic Communications

OREM, Utah. - The Stephen F. Austin Softball team (14-33, 7-12) split the Friday evening doubleheader with the Utah Valley Wolverines (17-23, 10-8) as the Wolverines won in walk-off fashion in game one with a 3-2 win, before SFA bounced back in game two and claimed a 4-2 win thanks to a late rally in the top of the seventh.

Game 1: UVU 3, SFA 2

The Lumberjacks and Wolverines began the series opener by exchanging a scoreless inning in the first before SFA would quickly strike in the top of the second to take an early lead. Brittany Coe would walk, and Ellie Vance would reach base one batter later to give SFA a pair of runners on base early. Lexi Benson would step in tied for the team lead in RBIs and would claim sole possession of the team lead in RBIs by crushing a standup double to deep left field that one hopped off the wall to score both pinch runner Veronica Cully and Ellie Vance and give SFA an early 2-0 lead. Following scoreless third and fourth innings by both schools, the Wolverines would score a run in both the fifth and sixth inning to tie the game at two runs apiece heading to the seventh inning.

The Wolverines would threaten a walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh as they would put a pair of runners on base, however, Alexis Telford remained calm, cool, and collected in the circle for SFA as she was able to induce consecutive outs from the Wolverines to extinguish the fire from Utah Valley and keep the game tied at two heading to extra innings. Utah Valley would once again threaten a win in the bottom of the eighth inning as they would load the bases with only one out, however, once again Alexis Telford and the SFA defense stepped up to the task as they recorded consecutive outs to keep Utah Valley off the board and keep the game tied at two heading to the ninth inning. Unfortunately for SFA, the Wolverines would capitalize on a scoring opportunity in the bottom of the ninth and claim a 3-2 win in the series opener.

The bottom of the SFA lineup came through in a big way for SFA offensively today as the sixth through ninth hitters for SFA combined for five hits in game one. Mallory Webb (2-4) led the offensive effort for SFA as she recorded a pair of base hits to lead all Lumberjack hitters. Meanwhile, Ellie Vance (1-4, R), Mikaelah Burkland (1-3), Chloe Reneau (1-3), and Alex Dubose (1-1, HBP) all joined Webb with singles of their own. Lexi Benson (1-4, 2B, 2 RBI) continues her successful season at the plate as she recorded her fourth double of the season while claiming the team lead in RBIs with her 10th extra-base hit this season, while Veronica Cully (0-0, R) scored as part of Benson's second inning two-run double.

Alexid Telford drew the start in the circle for SFA in game one of the doubleheader and pitched another solid game for SFA as she struck out five batters over 8.1 innings pitched. Telford has now struck out at least five batters in each of her last three starts, while allowing three or less earned runs in seven of her last eight starts. Brittany Coe drew the start behind the plate for SFA and remained busy on defense as she led the team with six putouts, while Ellie Vance experienced a successful day defensively as well as she recorded four putouts and four assists in game one.

Game 2: SFA 4, UVU 2

The Lumberjacks wasted no time getting on the board in game two of the doubleheader as in the top of the first, Chloe Reneau would send a rocket to centerfield that split the right-centerfield gap and rolled all the way to the wall, allowing Reneau to show off her blazing speed as she would slide into third safely, and wound up scoring on the play off an errant throw to give SFA an early 1-0 lead. The SFA defense would show off some magic of their own in the bottom of the first as with two runners on and two outs, Mallory Webb would make a sensational diving catch in shallow center field to take away a scoring opportunity from the Wolverines and keep the score 1-0 in SFA's favor. Utah Valley would respond back with a two-run homerun in the bottom of the third to take a 2-1 lead heading to the fourth inning. That score would stand until the top of the seventh inning when SFA would take their first lead of the game in the biggest moment.

The resilience and grit shown in this year's Lumberjack Softball team was on full display once again as they continue to force teams to play them to the very last out of the game. Take, for example, last week's doubleheader against UTA in which SFA rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game at five and set up an eventual 6-5 extra-innings win over the Mavericks. While today was not quite the same three-run deficit, SFA still pulled off another three-run rally in the top of the seventh to comeback and win in dramatic fashion.

The top of the seventh started off with the perfect batter to get a rally started as Ellie Vance would continue her dominating stretch of hitting by leading off the seventh with a single. Alex Dubose would draw another walk one batter later, before Mallory Webb would reach on a fielder's choice to give SFA a pair of runners on. Kaylee Paul would be entered as a pinch hitter and came through with her biggest hit of the year as she would send a screeching double down the right field line to score Dubose from second and advance Webb to third. Madison Nguyen would waste no time driving in Webb from third as she would send a groundball to shortstop to score Webb and give SFA their first lead of the game at 3-2. Chloe Reneau came through in a big moment one batter later as she collected her third hit of the game to give SFA a critical insurance run as it would score Kaylee Paul and extend the SFA lead to 4-2 heading to the bottom of the seventh. While the Wolverines would threaten to score in the bottom of the seventh, the Lumberjack defense and Kayla Palomino would shut the Wolverines down to secure the 4-2 win for SFA.

Chloe Reneau (3-4, R, 3B, RBI) continued her scorching start to this weekend series as she accounted for the Lumberjacks first and last runs of the game, while recording her second multi-hit effort in her last four games. Ellie Vance (2-3) followed suit of Reneau by recording a pair of singles herself as she continues to tear the cover off the softball as she now carries a five-game hitting streak and has recorded a hit in 12 of her last 13 games. Alex Dubose (1-2, BB) recorded a single and has now reached base safely in three of her last four games, while Mallory Webb (1-3, R) recorded a hit for the second consecutive game and has now tallied a hit in three of her last four games. However, Kaylee Paul (1-1, R, 2B, RBI) had the biggest hit of the game for SFA as her RBI double in the top of the seventh tied the game, while she ended up scoring a massive insurance run for SFA a few batters later.

Aydenne Brown drew the start in the circle for the second game of the doubleheader and continued the Lumberjacks string of strong pitching performances lately as she pitched six full innings, holding the Wolverines to just two runs while striking out three hitters, while picking up her fifth win of the season in the process. Kayla Palomino drew the closing assignment in the bottom of the seventh for SFA and answered the call for the 'Jacks by holding the Wolverines scoreless to secure her first save of the season. Alex Dubose came through on both offense and defense for SFA today as she led the team with seven putouts in addition to reaching base twice.

The Lumberjacks will be back in action tomorrow, April 20th for the series finale against the Wolverines in a rubber match as SFA will look to secure a series win. First pitch for tomorrow's game is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CST. You can watch all the action on WAC International, as well as follow along on the SFA Softball social media accounts for all the updates or by keeping track with live stats provided on the SFA Athletics website.