PSU-MINN Box Score (PDF)  |  PSU-MINN Box Score (HTML)

PSU-UCR Box Score (PDF)  |  PSU-UCR Box Score (HTML)

TUCSON – The Portland State softball team split two more games at the Wildcat Invitational on Saturday, dropping a 2-0 contest to Minnesota, before defeating UC Riverside, 8-6.

In their opener, Portland State was only able to tally three hits and Minnesota scored twice in the top of the seventh to earn the victory. The Golden Gophers put together three of their six hits in their half of the seventh to win a pitchers duel.

Minnesota's Sara Moulton went the distance, striking out 10 and walking one. The Vikings' Nichole Latham (5-4) also pitched a complete game, finishing with five Ks and one walk. Only one of the two runs she allowed was earned.

The nightcap against the Highlanders was a much different story as the teams combined for 22 hits and 14 runs. The Vikings finished with a season-best 14 hits off of two UCR pitchers.

UC Riverside opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, before the Vikings struck for three runs in the fourth. Brandi Campos tied the game up with an RBI-groundout, bringing in Sadie Lopez, who had led off with a double. Karmen Holladay then belted a two-run home run, her first of the season, to center field, making it 3-1.

The Highlanders answered right back in their half of the fourth, taking advantage of a PSU error to score two unearned runs and tie the game up.

Portland State finally earned some breathing room with a five-run sixth inning. Carly McEachran delivered a two-RBI triple to right center for the first two runs and the Viks also got run-scoring singles from Lacey Holm and Danielle Lynn during the frame.

UCR wasn't done, though, as they scored a solo run in the sixth and then tacked on two more in the seventh, before Vikings' pitcher Anna Bertrand finally finished them off.

Bertrand pitched all seven innings, walking four and striking out seven to improve to 5-3.

Offensively for the Vikings, Holm went 3-for-4, McEachran and Arielle Wiser each had two hits and all nine PSU starters recorded at least one hit.

Jordyn McDonald took the loss for UCR, falling to 2-5 after allowing 11 hits and seven runs over 5 1/3 innings.

"It was nice to have Karmen set the tone with her home run early in the game," said PSU Head Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk. "Carly played outstanding defense and made a spectacular play in the seventh. It was one of the better defensive plays I've ever seen. In the first game, Nichole pitched a good game, but we just didn't get the bats going until it was too late."

The Vikings close out their trip to Tucson by playing Utah State tomorrow at 10 a.m.

NOTES: Wiser took over the tenth spot in the PSU record book for career hits in the UCR game. She now has 168 ... Lynn has a five-game hitting streak going and is batting .400 (6-for-15) over that span ... the Vikings snapped a four-game losing streak to UCR. Portland State leads the all-time series, 11-6 ... Minnesota tied up the all-time series with PSU at 3-3 ... PSU already has eight triples this season. They had 10 all of last year .. the Vikings are now 10-7 on the season.

PORTLAND STATE–MINNESOTA LINESCORE:

Minnesota 2, Portland State 0 (Mar 05, 2011 at Tucson, Ariz.)
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Minnesota........... 000 000 2 -  2  6  1      (10-7)
Portland State...... 000 000 0 -  0  3  2      (9-7)
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Pitchers: Minnesota - Moulton and Dorle. Portland State - LATHAM, Nichole and HOLM, Lacey.
Win-Moulton(9-5)  Loss-LATHAM, Nichole(5-4)  T-1:45  A-508
Weather: 75, sunny

PORTLAND STATE–UC RIVERSIDE LINESCORE:

Portland State 8, Cal Riverside 6 (Mar 05, 2011 at Tucson, Ariz.)
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Portland State...... 000 305 0 -  8 14  1      (10-7)
Cal Riverside....... 100 201 2 -  6  8  2      (4-13)
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Pitchers: Portland State - BERTRAND, Anna and HOLM, Lacey. Cal Riverside - McDonald, J;
Lwin, A(6) and Pickett, A; Brodersen, D.
Win-BERTRAND, Anna(5-3)  Loss-McDonald, J(2-5)  T-2:12  A-49
HR PSU - HOLLADAY, Karmen (1).
Weather: 60, Breezy