By Loren Miller, USU Eastern Sports Information:

PRICE – In their final home series of the season, Utah State Eastern Softball were swept by the #8 Salt Lake Community College Bruins on Friday and Saturday.

In game one the Eagles held the high-powered Bruin offense to six runs, four runs below the Bruins’ average per game.

Unfortunately the Eagles could only come up with one run in game one when sophomore McKenzie Dorney hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.

USU Eastern sophomore Carlye Levy would give up 10 hits and six runs in the circle for the Eagles.

In game two the Eagles would struggle defensively and lose 16-3.

After taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Salt Lake’s offense would explode in the second and produce six runs.

Salt Lake would add eight more runs in the fourth inning with the help of a grand slam and a two-run home run.

Sophomores Ashley Sweat and Jaiden Smith each had a hit and an RBI in game two to lead the team.

With Friday’s doubleheader sweep in the rearview mirror, the Eagles would battle the Bruins in game three Saturday but would come up short in the seventh inning and fall 9-7.

The Eagles trailed most of game three until the bottom of the sixth when the bats finally came alive.

Trailing 4-1, a Taylor Passarella ground out with a runner at third made it a 4-2 game.

Sophomore Rilee Stookey scored Passarella on an RBI triple to cut the lead to ones.

A few at-bats later the Eagles took a 6-4 lead after a Smith three-run home run.

Salt Lake would come back in the top of the seventh with five runs of their own to take a 9-6 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh the Eagles would try to force extra innings but would fall short with only scoring one more run off a solo home run from Avery Blackhurst.

“SLCC is the number one team and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy going in, but they still showed some fight even when they were down,” said USU Eastern Softball coach Mary Hart.

In the final game of the series, the Eagles were shut down by SLCC’s pitcher Tarni Stepto who threw a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts and two walks.

On offense the Bruins put up nine runs to end the game in five innings with a score of 9-0.

The four losses against the Bruins puts the Eagles at 12-27 overall and 10-17 in conference play.

“I think even though we did lose we had some good plays against a very strong team, they never really gave up they kept trying and I think that’s something that’s going to keep us going,” said Coach Hart.

With two more road series left on the schedule, one in Henderson and one in Twin Falls, Hart believes the team can get better and be ready for the conference tournament in May.

“I think if we keep playing like we have been we should finish the season of strong and do well come tournament,” said Hart.

The Eagles will travel to Henderson next week for a four-game series against the College of Southern Nevada.

CSN is currently two games ahead of the Eagles in the loss column making the series critical for conference tournament seeding.

All four games in Henderson will be broadcasted on the Scenic West Digital Network at scenicwestnetwork.com.

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