Softball returns home from Kajikawa Classic with 1-4 record

By Katie Lynn
Western Herald

The Western Michigan University’s women’s softball team competed in the Kajikawa Classic on Feb. 11-14 in Tempe, AZ to kick off their 2010 season.

After five games of play, the Lady Broncos returned home with an overall record of 1-4.

On Thursday, Feb. 11, the Brown and Gold kicked off tournament play with a win against the University of Mississippi.

The Rebel’s scored five runs to start the game but the Broncos echoed back with four runs of their own in the first inning.  Scoring for the Brown and Gold were sophomore Meredith Whitney, junior Lexi Jager, senior Sarah Thomas and sophomore Kayla Houston.

Ole Miss picked up another three runs in the second to bring their score to eight and to tie the game. Western Michigan came out strong in the bottom of the second, scoring four more runs to tie the score 8-8 at the start of the third.

The Broncos followed that with one run made in the third from Jager, who turned around and brought in another home run in the fifth inning.

The Lady Broncos scored 11 runs in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to five, 21-16, to capture the first win of the season.

At the end of the day, junior Michelle Bendewald picked up a single-game record of eight RBIs while teammate Lexi Jager tied her own single-game record with two home runs.

Western Michigan returned to play on Friday to compete in the second day of tournament play against No. 4 ranked University of Arizona.

The Wildcats were able to take the win, defeating the Broncos, 13-0.

The Red and Blue started the game with seven runs in the first inning, followed by another six runs in the fourth.  Those 13 runs right off the bat proved too much for Western Michigan to handle, as the Lady Broncos were unable to catch up.

Kayla Houston took the loss at the mound for the Broncos, who dropped to 1-1 as they headed into a match-up against the University of Kentucky on Saturday.

The Broncos started the first inning against Kentucky with a run made by Jager, but unfortunately, that run was not enough to stay in the game.

The Wildcats were unable to score until the third inning after they picked up one run; however, in the fourth inning, the Blue and White brought in four runs to capture the win, 5-1.

Western Michigan’s next game was against No. 11 University of California who went into the game with a 1-1 record so far, with a win against the University of Wisconsin and a loss against Texas A & M.

The Golden Bears started the game with four runs made in the first inning followed by three more runs in the second. The Broncos were not able to score until the bottom of the third with a run made by Jager. The score was 7-1 to start the fourth.

The University of California brought the score to nine, with runs made in both the fourth and fifth innings.

The Blue and Gold were able to take their second win of the tournament with a win against the Western Michigan, defeating them 9-1.

To finish off the Kajikawa Classic, the Lady Broncos took on the University of Oregon on Saturday afternoon.

The Beavers started the game off strong, with one run made in the first.  Oregon then followed with another run in the third and two more in the sixth inning.

Unable to score, Western Michigan picked up another loss after a 0-4 finish.

The Lady Broncos return to play on March 3-7 when they travel to Florida to compete in the Under Armour Invitational.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Feb 17 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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