Chadron State College freshman Jessica Jarecki pitched two complete games, winning both, while the Eagle bats heated up in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, as CSC put the league on notice with a 2-1 series win over No. 16 Colorado Mesa on Monday.
The tripleheader, delayed from the weekend due to weather, was the conference opener for both teams. CSC went to 5-9 (2-1 RMAC) while CMU opens up league play 8-4 (1-2 RMAC).
“Words really can’t describe it right now,” said CSC head softball coach Rob Stack of the series win over the defending RMAC champs. “To be able to come out like we did and swing the bats at home is incredible. But I told the girls after we got done, one series doesn’t make a season, and we’ve got nine more ahead of us. We’ve got to keep it going.”
“Mesa is a very good ball club,” he said. “They really took it to us in the second game. Neither of us played the last two weeks, and it just so happened to be the luck of the draw we got them the first week of conference play.”
He praised his freshmen who played a key role in the game, especially pitcher Jessica Jarecki.
First baseman Allie Mason homered twice, while Sheyann Ludwig also homered and doubled twice, and Ellie Owens also went yard. Jarecki held the league leading Mavericks, who entered batting .343 as a team, to an average of .192 in the two games she pitched, recording an ERA of 2.00 for the day and striking out 10.
In the opener, Ludwig got the Eagles on the board first with an RBI double in the third that plated Courtney Lecher. Colorado Mesa took the lead, however, with a three-run fifth inning helped by two CSC errors. Chadron State tied things up in the bottom of the same inning, with solo homers by Mason and Ludwig, and the seventh belonged to senior third baseman Taylor Bauer, whose walk-off solo home run ended the contest.
Bauer was 4-for-7 over the course of three games, with a double and two home runs. Her perfect 1.000 fielding percentage included several key assists, including an athletic dive over the foul line which she recovered to catch the runner at first. She had five putouts and three assists on the day.
After a forgettable game two which the Eagles lost 14-1 in five innings, Jarecki again took her place in the circle and hurled seven complete innings.
CMU homered in the second to go up 1-0, but Lecher plated Alyssa Geist in the third and Lindsey Karlin got an RBI single after Bauer reached second on one of her two doubles of the day. A two-run home run by Owens padded the Eagles’ lead in the fourth, but the Mavericks took advantage of an error in the infield to get a runner on before Brooke Hodgson homered to close the gap to 4-3 in the fifth.
Back and forth the momentum went. A Ludwig double in the fifth led to a couple of sacrifices which brought her home on a Karlin sac fly. Mesa would not go away, however, as they put two more across in the top of the sixth to tie the game up 5-5. The Eagles got the last laugh, however as Mason’s solo homer in the bottom of the sixth proved to be the game-winner.
Jarecki walked a pair of batters in the seventh – one intentionally – but ended the day with her 10th strikeout of the series to walk off a winner. She improves to 4-2 on the season.
Stack noted also that mental errors were a significant challenge for his club on Monday. There were seven recorded errors on the scoreboard in the three outings, but hesitation on a couple of fielder’s choice plays also led to unnecessary opportunities by the Mavericks.
Chadron State continues its conference slate with a trip to New Mexico Highlands this week. NMHU went 1-3 at home this weekend against Colorado Christian, and will see Eastern New Mexico twice this week before the Eagles’ visit.