Box Score vs. Utah
Box Score vs. California
TEMPE, Ariz. - After falling to California, 8-0, in five innings, Western Michigan softball came from a run down to defeat Utah, 5-3. The Broncos used the long ball again as Amanda Gelder and Brittney Reist went yard in the win and WMU staved off a bases-loaded rally by the Utes in the top of the seventh to earn its second win.
Western Michigan (2-2) struck first when Reist led off the second inning with a home run, giving the Broncos a 1-0 lead. Utah (7-2), which suffered just its second loss of the season after running out to a 5-0 start, battled back with a pair of runs in the top of the third.
Michelle Bendewald and Becky Bartosz, who started at third base, earned walks to start the bottom of the fifth inning. After Sarah Thomas struck out swinging, Samantha Vargocko reached base on an error. Bendewald scored an unearned run and Bartosz advance to third on the errant throw. Molly Mroczek struck out, which set the table for Gelder's three-run bomb over the right center field wall. Western Michigan took a 5-2 lead into the sixth.
Utah scratched out one more run in the top of the sixth but the real drama began in the top of the seventh. Kyla Sullivan relieved starting pitcher Meghan Thomas (2-0) in the circle to begin the inning. Utah's second batter reached base on a walk and then advanced to second and then third on a pair of passed balls. Two more walks were sandwiched around a strike out. With the bases loaded and two outs on the board, Sullivan forced Utah's last batter to line out back to the circle to end the threat and earn her first save of the season.
Western Michigan will end its time in Arizona with an 11 a.m. (ET) match up with Virginia.
