Jacks win wild and windy game over Western

Saturday, April 30

Jackrabbit SB Stadium

1 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Western Illinois

4/30/2011 5:09:00 PM | Softball

By: SDSU Sports Info

The wind ruled again in Saturday's series finale between South Dakota State and Western Illinois, but unlike Friday, it blew out on Saturday, resulting in two homeruns from each team. The difference in the game though, came down to base runners, as the Jackrabbits hit a two run and a three run homerun, while the Fighting Leathernecks got a solo and a two run homer in the 9-7 SDSU win.

The give the Jacks a 10-39 overall record and improves their league tally to 7-14. Western falls to 19-23 overall and 14-10 in Summit League play.

Down 1-0 in the second, Tina Winter hit a two-out single through the right side, and then scored on a Krista Honken double to tie the game at 1-1. That brought up Greta Stroh, who cleared the bases with a wind-aided homerun over the center field fence that put the Jacks up 3-1.

Western came right back with two runs in the top of the third to tie the game at three heading into the bottom half of the inning. Allison Huffman got things going for the Jacks with a two-out double to left field, and then scored when Marlee Petersen singled to left center field to put SDSU back on top 4-3. Winter followed with an RBI single up the middle that scored Peterson to increase the SDSU lead to 5-3.

Western's Ashley Campbell got some help from the wind to lead off the fourth inning with a solo homerun to get the Leathernecks within one at 4-3, before Nikki Marinec put WIU up 6-5 with a two-run blast, that did not need the wind to clear the fence, in the sixth.

The Jacks bounced back though, and got an RBI single from Ashley Durazo in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at 6-all, before Huffman untied the game with a three-run bomb off the scoreboard in left, that also did not need any help from the wind, to give the Jacks a 9-6 lead heading into the seventh.

The Jackrabbits did get into a bit of a bind in the top of the seventh, and Western did score one run to get to 9-7 with one out, but Hailey Bickford grounded into a game-ending double to quell the threat and deliver a win for the Jackrabbits.

SDSU returns to action on Wednesday for their final non-conference games of the season, when the Jacks host North Dakota at 3 and 5 p.m.