FRESNO, Calif. - The University of Nevada softball team split a doubleheader with the Fresno State Bulldogs Saturday, winning game one 8-4, and falling in game two 5-0.
Nevada finished the season at 13-34 (4-17 WAC), while Fresno State ended the 2011 regular season at 31-15 (15-6 WAC).
In game one, the Wolf Pack jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. It got two runs on three hits in the top half of the first frame. One of those hits, a single, came from Alex Arciniega, who started as the designated player for the second day in a row.
Ariel Craig, who started her third game of the year for the Pack, retired Fresno State without surrendering a hit to preserve the lead through one inning.
Craig retired the Bulldogs in order in the second, making the score 2-0 Nevada after two complete.
Chelsea Venable led off the top of the third with a double to right field, and after she advanced to third on a Karley Hopkins groundout, was driven home by Arciniega. A double play ended the inning before the Pack could do any more damage however.
Fresno State got its first hit of the game, a single from Rebecca Hall, to lead off the bottom of the third. After the Bulldogs loaded the bases, Michelle Moses hit a two-run double into right field to bring them to within one.
A wild pitch from Craig resulted in the third run of the inning for Fresno State, and after three complete innings, the score was tied 3-3.
Nevada's seventh hit of the game, a Megan Fincher single, put runners on the corners with nobody out in the fourth. Two batters later, Venable singled into left field to put the Pack back on top 4-3.
A three up, three down fourth from Craig made the score 4-3 Pack after four innings. Nevada would extend the lead in the top of the fifth, as Fincher hit a three-run homer to deep left-center field to put the Pack on top by four after four and a half innings.
A run from Fresno State in the bottom of the fifth would be its last, as Nevada would go on to get its 13th victory of the season. Ariel Craig recorded her first collegiate victory, going 4.1 innings before Mallary Darby came in to get the final eight outs. Craig moved to 1-2 on the year with the win.
The first inning and a half of game two went by without incident, as neither team could plate a runner.
Fresno State struck first, getting two runs in the bottom of the second to jump out to an early lead. Moses, who got the start for the Bulldogs, struck out five hitters through her first three innings.
The Pack threatened in the top of the fourth, putting two runners in scoring position with only one out, but was unable to bring either of them home. The score remained 2-0 Fresno State after four and a half.
After walking for the second time in the game in the sixth inning, Murdock stole her second base of the game and fourth of the day. It was her 19th stolen base of the season, which tied the Nevada single-season record, set by Brittany Puzey in 2009.
It was also Murdock's 30th stolen base on 30 attempts for her career.
A two run home run from Demi Walker in the bottom of the sixth, along with one more run in the frame, made the score 5-0 Fresno State after six, where the score would stay until the final out.
As Nevada did not qualify for the season-ending WAC Tournament, played at Bulldog Diamond in Fresno, May 11-14, Britton Murdock, Danielle Patrick and Justine Cooper played their final games in the Silver and Blue Saturday.
