SALT LAKE CITY –
Sarah Ladd and
Mariah Lopez combined to hold the No. 9 Washington Huskies to a single run and the University of Utah softball team earned a series-clinching victory by a score of 2-1 on Saturday afternoon in Pac-12 Conference action at Dumke Family Softball Stadium.
Utah has now won 11 of 13 and is 32-19 on the season and 10-13 in conference. The Huskies stand at 31-12 and 13-10.
"Sarah led us so well today," said coach
Amy Hogue. "We fed off her presence in the circle. We don't always play solid defense behind her, which has been unfortunate, since she has deserved better from us, so I'm very happy with our defense today. Quality defense is the only way to win games when getting outhit.
"This was a day of the small things. Get on, move her over, hit her in. We did that twice-in-a-row and because of our pitching and defense, that is all we needed to get the series win."
The Utes were the first team to dent home plate, doing so in the opening frame, which started with an
Aliya Belarde single. After Belarde was sacrificed to second and
Abby Dayton drew a walk,
Kaylah Nelsen bounced an RBI single through the middle to begin the scoring.
Another Utah run crossed the plate in the second, when two safeties sandwiched around a hit batter loaded the bases and Dayton waited out her second walk of the afternoon to force in a run.
A run-scoring double by Sydney Stewart cut the home team's advantage in half in the third, but the Utes maintained their slim margin when
Shonty Passi threw out Stewart at the plate moments later. Ladd then retired Avery Hobson on a groundout, stranding two runners in scoring position.
Lopez took over in the fourth and proceeded to set down nine of the first 10 batters she faced. In the seventh, the Utah lefty retired the first two hitters before Rylee Holtorf drew a walk to bring up Stewart as the tying run, but Stewart's line drive to center was gloved by Dayton to lock up Utah's third straight win.
Lopez gave up only a single hit across four innings to improve to 21-10 and her and Ladd combined to hold the Huskies to 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
Up Next
The series finale between the Utes and Huskies is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
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