Saturday, April 20
Orem, UT
2:00 p.m.
Stephen F. Austin
15-33, 8-12
1
at
0
Utah Valley University
17-24, 10-9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Stephen F. Austin
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
6
0
Utah Valley
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
2
Gainous Shines Once Again as Lumberjacks Win Rubber Match Over Wolverines
4/20/2024 7:30:00 PM | Softball
OREM, Utah. - The Stephen F. Austin Softball team (15-33, 8-12) won the rubber match game over the Utah Valley Wolverines (17-24, 10-9) 1-0, as SFA took the lead in the second and never looked back in a critical conference series win thanks to another pitching gem from Brooke Gainous.
The series finale of the three-game set between SFA and UVU saw both teams exchange a scoreless first inning before SFA jumped out to an early lead for the third straight game in the second inning. Ellie Vance would lead off the top of the second continuing her unprecedented success at the plate as she would send a line drive through the left side to get the inning started for SFA. Mikaelah Burkland would step into the box two batters later and sent a rocket to right-centerfield that found the gap and rolled to the wall to easily score Vance all the way from first and give SFA an early 1-0 lead. The bottom of the second saw the Wolverines put a pair of runners on with only one out, however, the SFA defense stepped up in a big way once again as they turned a massive 6-4-3 double play to get out of the jam and end the second inning still leading 1-0. That run would be all SFA would need to come away with a series win as Brooke Gainous did all the heavy lifting in this one by pitching a gem of a game and kept the Wolverines bats silent the rest of the game to secure the 1-0 win for SFA.
Mikaelah Burkland (1-3, 2B, RBI) got the scoring started for SFA with her fourth double of the season as she has now recorded back-to-back games with a hit. Ellie Vance (1-3, R) continues to torment opposing pitchers as she is now on an impressive six-game hitting streak while recording a hit in 13 of her last 14 games. Chloe Reneau (1-3, 2B) continued to be a hitting machine for SFA this weekend as she recorded her third straight game with a hit recording extra-base hits in two of the three games this weekend, and has recorded a hit in four of her last five games. Emily Land (1-3) and Amiah Galcatcher (2-3) joined the hitting frenzy for SFA as they recorded back-to-back singles of their own in the first inning to set the tone early for the SFA offense.
Brooke Gainous drew the start in the circle for SFA in the series finale and only continued to build off her best pitching performance of the season last week in which she pitched a complete game shutout against ACU. Gainous followed that performance up with an equally dominating performance in the circle today in which she pitched her second consecutive complete-game shutout gem as she held the Wolverines to a mere three hits on the afternoon with all three hits being singles as the Wolverines never posed a real scoring threat to the calm, cool, and collected Gainous. Gainous has now pitched 14 consecutive scoreless innings for SFA allowing just nine singles and no extra-base hits during that stretch while issuing just one walk. Gainous picked up her fifth win of the season thanks to today's superb performance and has picked up a win in back-to-back outings as the Lumberjack pitching staff continues to string together fantastic outings from all their pitchers.
The Lumberjacks will travel back home to Nacogdoches for their next series as they will play their final home series of the season against the WAC-leading Grand Canyon Lopes in a three-game weekend series at SFA Softball Field. The series kicks off with a Friday afternoon doubleheader with first pitch of the first game scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CST and the second game starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. Meanwhile, the series finale has first pitch scheduled for 12:00 p.m. CST on Saturday. You can watch all the action on ESPN+, 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.
The series finale of the three-game set between SFA and UVU saw both teams exchange a scoreless first inning before SFA jumped out to an early lead for the third straight game in the second inning. Ellie Vance would lead off the top of the second continuing her unprecedented success at the plate as she would send a line drive through the left side to get the inning started for SFA. Mikaelah Burkland would step into the box two batters later and sent a rocket to right-centerfield that found the gap and rolled to the wall to easily score Vance all the way from first and give SFA an early 1-0 lead. The bottom of the second saw the Wolverines put a pair of runners on with only one out, however, the SFA defense stepped up in a big way once again as they turned a massive 6-4-3 double play to get out of the jam and end the second inning still leading 1-0. That run would be all SFA would need to come away with a series win as Brooke Gainous did all the heavy lifting in this one by pitching a gem of a game and kept the Wolverines bats silent the rest of the game to secure the 1-0 win for SFA.
Mikaelah Burkland (1-3, 2B, RBI) got the scoring started for SFA with her fourth double of the season as she has now recorded back-to-back games with a hit. Ellie Vance (1-3, R) continues to torment opposing pitchers as she is now on an impressive six-game hitting streak while recording a hit in 13 of her last 14 games. Chloe Reneau (1-3, 2B) continued to be a hitting machine for SFA this weekend as she recorded her third straight game with a hit recording extra-base hits in two of the three games this weekend, and has recorded a hit in four of her last five games. Emily Land (1-3) and Amiah Galcatcher (2-3) joined the hitting frenzy for SFA as they recorded back-to-back singles of their own in the first inning to set the tone early for the SFA offense.
Brooke Gainous drew the start in the circle for SFA in the series finale and only continued to build off her best pitching performance of the season last week in which she pitched a complete game shutout against ACU. Gainous followed that performance up with an equally dominating performance in the circle today in which she pitched her second consecutive complete-game shutout gem as she held the Wolverines to a mere three hits on the afternoon with all three hits being singles as the Wolverines never posed a real scoring threat to the calm, cool, and collected Gainous. Gainous has now pitched 14 consecutive scoreless innings for SFA allowing just nine singles and no extra-base hits during that stretch while issuing just one walk. Gainous picked up her fifth win of the season thanks to today's superb performance and has picked up a win in back-to-back outings as the Lumberjack pitching staff continues to string together fantastic outings from all their pitchers.
The Lumberjacks will travel back home to Nacogdoches for their next series as they will play their final home series of the season against the WAC-leading Grand Canyon Lopes in a three-game weekend series at SFA Softball Field. The series kicks off with a Friday afternoon doubleheader with first pitch of the first game scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CST and the second game starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. Meanwhile, the series finale has first pitch scheduled for 12:00 p.m. CST on Saturday. You can watch all the action on ESPN+, 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.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Gainous, Brooke (5-9)
L: Sapp, Avery (4-10)
Batting:
2B: Reneau, Chloe 1 ; Burkland, Mikaelah 1
RBI: Burkland, Mikaelah 1
SH: Lusk, Hope 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Vance, Ellie 1
SB: Reneau, Chloe 1
Batting:
SH: Mann, Angelique 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
OF
/ Softball
P
/ SoftballOF
/ Softball
C/3B
/ Softball
IF
/ SoftballINF
/ Softball2.1.24 | Axe 'Em Insider Ep. 24 x Softball
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