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No. 3 Utah Defeats No. 6 New Mexico, 9-1, In Opening Round Of 2006 MWC Softball Tournament Utes advance to the second round to face second-seed BYU
May 11, 2006 LAS VEGAS - Final Boxscore in PDF Format
In game one of the Mountain West Softball Tournament, the No. 3 seed Utah Utes (35-19) defeated the No. 6 seed New Mexico Lobos (23-29), 9-1, in a five-inning run-ruled affair. With the victory, the Utes advance to the Thursday, 4:30 p.m. game against the No. 2 seed BYU Cougars. The Lobos will face the loser of the No. 1 San Diego State and No. 4 UNLV/No. 5 Colorado State winner game on Friday, May 12 at 11:30 a.m.
"We came out and hit the ball like we needed to and scored some runs," said Utah Head Coach Kyle Magnusson. "Our pitching has not been as good as it needed to be in the last few games but Karina (Cannon) threw the ball great today."
Utah jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with both runs coming in the first inning. Jackie Wong opened the inning with a lead off double to left field, followed by a single by Diana Phillips. Devina Quintero plated Wong with a fielder's choice sacrifice bunt as Phillips came home on a ground ball error hit by Sharee Fonoti.
The game remained scoreless until the fourth inning when New Mexico cut Utah's lead to one. Utah's Karina Cannon held a perfect game heading into the fourth, but New Mexico got two singles and a run to break up the bid. The two hits and one run was the only offense that the Lobos would get off of the hurler.
"We didn't come out and play as strong as we have all year long," said Lobo Head Coach Kim Newbern. "We were really fast on offense and I think we pushed it a little bit."
Utah scored five runs on five hits in the bottom of the fourth and closed out the contest with two runs in the fifth inning to give the Utes a 9-1 win.
Cannon picked up her 18th win of the season and improved to 18-7. She struck out four in the contest.
Jen Mendenhall (8-13) threw 3.2 innings in the loss and allowed seven runs (six earned) on seven hits. She walked three. |
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