University of St. Thomas Athletics
Williams
Softball loses two in Sun West openers
3/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
The No. 1-ranked St. Thomas softball team opened its Sun West tournament with two close losses to strong teams. The Toms lost 2-1 to No. 4-ranked Chapman and 10-8 to No. 10-rated Linfield (Ore.) and dropped to 5-3 on the season.
Chapman, a 2004 College World Series team, is now 25-3 in 2005 after going 36-11 last season. Linfield, an NCAA playoff team and 37-9 finisher last season, improved to 13-3. Chapman beat Linfield 1-0 earlier in the day.
In the Chapman loss, Janet Nagle had her streak of consecutive pitching wins end at 32. The junior All-American pitched 4 1-3 inning and allowed two runs, five hit and three walks with five strikeouts.
UST had just three hits and scored its lone run in the top of the first on a walk, stolen base and Kristi Huegel's RBI single. The Toms had three errors and left a runner on base in six of the seven innings. Chapman scored on a two-out walk in the second and a one-out RBI single in the fourth.
Ashley Carlblom homered to lead a 12-hit attack vs. Linfield. Joining her with two hits were Nagle, Katie Wiberg, Michelle Wong and Mandy Evans. Freshman Maria Bye pitched into the sixth inning and took the loss. Four Tommie errors led to four unearned runs.
The Tommies play two more good teams today in George Fox(Ore.), which lost just 10-7 to Chapman, and No. 18-ranked Williams (Mass.) (32-10 last season).
see UST vs. Chapman box score here
