Nadia Witt Left Field Throwing 2019
Carlos Puma
10
UC Riverside UCR 26-26
18
Winner Fresno State FS 37-18
UC Riverside UCR
26-26
10
Final
18
Fresno State FS
37-18
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 R H E
UC Riverside UCR 2 3 5 0 0 10 10 7
Fresno State FS 9 4 4 0 1 18 15 0

W: EAST, D. (5-7) L: Boles, Jacy (12-10)

Game Recap: Softball |

Defensive Miscues Cost Softball Game One of the NISC

RENO, Nev.—The first game of the NISC Regional in Reno, Nevada was an offensive showcase for both teams, but the UCR Riverside Softball Team saw too many defensive mistakes to keep up with Fresno State's bats. In the end, the Bulldogs finished the game in five taking it 18-10, and only a combined 1.5 innings would go scoreless.

The story came down to the nine Highlanders that never left the field and showed grit and perseverance throughout. Despite allowing nine the Bulldog runs in the first inning, the team would bring the tying-run to the plate just two innings later.

Only five regular starters made an appearance in the game, but every player reached base safely at least once despite some not having hits or at-bats this season. Both Raena Robinson (1-for-3) and Kristin Smith (2-for-2) collected their first hits of the year, while junior pitcher Jacy Boles earned a pair of walks in her first at-bats since her freshman year. The three would combine to score five of the team's 10 runs.

The Highlander offense scored early and often, despite many key players being unavailable for the first game of the tournament, with UCR scoring in each of the first three innings. A two-run first would give the Highlanders an early lead.

Junior Kayla Curtan led things off with a double to the center-field wall and would come around to score the first run of the regional on a Nadia Witt RBI single. The freshman left fielder then made it 2-0 scoring on a single from fellow freshman Sami Demyon.

Down 9-2 in the second frame, the usual heroics of junior Emma Ramelot took place as she cut the lead to four with a monster home run over the left-field wall, a three-run shot.

FSU would tack on three more in the bottom half of the inning, but UCR again punched-back with huge scoring effort in the top of three. Ramelot struck again to get things going on a bases-loaded sac-fly, her fourth RBI of the day. Junior Melanie Olmos, named 2nd Team All-Region just hours before, proved worthy of the honor following with a 2 RBI single to left center that cut the lead to four, and freshman Haylee Kela walked in the final run to make it 13-10.

Unfortunately this would conclude a great offensive outing for the Highlanders, who did what was needed with the bats to keep it close, but the seven errors on the other end put the game out of reach.

UC Riverside will now see a familiar opponent in LMU tomorrow in a win-or-go-home elimation matchup. First pitch is set for 10 AM in Reno, Nevada.