FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The Drake softball team started play at the Colorado State Rams Invitational today with a pair of non-conference matchups. The Bulldogs (9-8) pulled off another epic comeback to win the opener before bowing out early to the tournament hosts.
Drake 7, Idaho State 4
The day started bleakly as Drake fell behind to Idaho State (13-10) in their early action. Alyssa Yee delivered an RBI single before Olivia Robison doubled to left center to give the Bengals a 2-0 lead after the first inning.
The Bengals held on to that advantage until the fourth inning when
Addie Lightner stepped up and homered with the bases empty to cut the ISU lead in half. In the next frame, Yee scored again for Idaho State on a wild pitch before a sacrifice fly by Jenna Kearns made it 4-1 in favor of the Bengals.
The sixth inning marked the start of Drake's comeback effort as
MaKayla Rice tripled to right field to plate both
Haylee Lehman and
Allie Bishoff. Lightner came through again in the seventh inning, erasing the Dog's one-run deficit with an RBI groundout. The Bulldogs and Bengals went to extra innings knotted at four.
Drake maintained its momentum in the eighth inning as
Frankie Rita singled to bring Bishoff around again. Rice then tripled for the second time in the game and drove in two more runs as Drake extended its lead to 7-4. The Bengals could not manage any scores of their own in the home half as Drake escaped with the victory.
Rice, hitting in the nine-spot, went 3-for-4 with four RBI to lead the Bulldogs. Rita,
Emma Dighton, and
Abby Martin also logged multiple base hits while Lightner added two RBI.
Molly Hoekstra started in the circle and earned the victory to improve to 3-0 on the season. She threw four full innings and struck out five Bengal batters.
Colorado State 10, Drake 0
The second game of the day was not as kind to the Bulldogs as they faced off with the invite hosts from Colorado State (14-8).
The Rams owned the matchup from the first pitch to the last out. CSU scored four runs in the first inning to take an early lead. Their advantage grew in the second with three more scores. The Rams rounded out their scoring output in the fourth inning with another trio of runs to take a 10-0 lead.
Drake got a single from
Skylar Rigby in the fifth inning but could not rally as the Bulldogs fell. Rigby was one of four Drake players to record a hit.
Emma Dighton took the loss as the starting pitcher. She hurled just one inning and allowed six runs.
Emma Richards came on in relief for three frames.
The Bulldogs will continue their trip with another double header tomorrow. Drake is set for a 10 a.m. meeting with Maine and a rematch against Idaho State at 12:30 p.m.
