PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – The Nevada softball team opened up its 2020 season dropping both games. BYU took game one, 6-1 before #3 Oklahoma won the second game, 9-3. After the two games, the Wolf Pack sit at 0-2 in its early campaign.
On the day, the Pack's offense combined for four runs off of a combined 10 hits. The team hit for just a .200 (10-50) in its first two games, with two doubles and a triple. In the circle, freshman
Blake Craft opened up the season with her first collegiate start and went the distance, where she allowed just two earned runs and struck out three batters in the process.
After a standout junior year, senior
Sierra Mello came back strong in her first two games, hitting .600 (3-for-5) on the day to go along with a run scored, an RBI and a standup triple. Senior
Mele Tausinga, who did not see much action in the 2019 season, came off the bench in the first game against BYU and started against OU, tallied a double and an RBI in her first start of the year.
The Pack held the Cougars off in the first inning but two errors on the infield in the second inning allowed two runs to cross for BYU. The score stayed, 2-0 in favor of the Cougars until the top of the fifth when Nevada plated its lone run after a double, hit by
Jessica Sellers, was driven in on an RBI single from
Sadaria McAlister. The Pack had
Kenzi Goins in scoring position in the top of the sixth but a double play ended the threat and was returned with a four run sixth inning by BYU.
In the night cap matchup against Oklahoma (1-0), the Sooners took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a two RBI single to centerfield. The Pack answered back in the bottom of the second though with a single from Mello followed by Tausinga's double. OU returned the favor scoring two runs in the top of the third but yet again Nevada scored a run in the bottom of the fourth. The game stayed relatively even until the sixth inning when OU went off for five runs. The Pack tried to rally in the bottom of the sixth, plating a single run but was unable to pull it off.
Kendall Fritz got the ball against OU and pitched five innings before
Julia Jensen came in for the final two. Ultimately Fritz and Craft took losses today but the Pack is back in action tomorrow, Feb. 7 against Long Beach State and Utah Valley.
