POCATELLO, Idaho – The Portland State Vikings and the Southern Utah Thunderbirds will square off Saturday in the inaugural Big Sky Softball Tournament Championship game. The Vikings are 2-0 in the tournament while the T-Birds are 2-1. The championship game is slated for a 12 p.m. PDT first pitch at Miller Ranch Stadium in Pocatello, Idaho.
The Big Sky Tournament is set up in a double-elimination format. The Thunderbirds would need to defeat the Vikings twice Saturday to claim the tournament championship. The winner will earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Vikings are going for the third trip to the national tournament in three years.
TOURNAMENT SUMMERY
The Vikings defeated the Thunderbirds 8-0 in five innings to kick off the tournament Thursday.
Brittany Hendrickson drove in two runs in the bottom of the first for the Vikings hitting the tournament's first ever home run. The Vikings added one in the fourth to go up 3-0 before a big five-run fifth inning closed out the game.
Aubrey Nitschelm hit a walk-off three-run home run with one out in the fifth to give the Vikings the opening game victory.
Portland State then met host Idaho State in the winner's bracket match up Friday. The Bengals came into the tournament as the best hitting team in the conference but ran into the Big Sky's Pitcher of the Year senior
Anna Bertrand. Idaho State led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run and it looked for a moment as if the offense that hit four home runs against Sacramento State the previous day would pick up right where it left off.
Bertrand stayed calm, cool, and collected on the mound and induced a double play to get out of the first inning. The Vikings tied the game at 1-1 with an unearned run in the top of the second on a throwing error by the Bengals first baseman. Portland State took the lead in the fourth with a RBI double off the bat of senior
Alexa Morales that scored
Crysta Conn giving the Vikings a 2-1 lead.
Idaho State was not to be outdone and quickly scored a run to tie it at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth. The Bengals then took a 3-2 lead with a run in the bottom of the sixth.
With the Vikings down to their last three outs, Morales had probably the gutsiest at bat of the tournament so far fouling off pitch after pitch. She eventually singled to right field to lead off the inning before being lifted for a pinch runner.
Two batters later, senior
Sadie Lopez hit a laser shot over the left field fence for a two-run home run to give the Vikings the 4-3 lead. Fellow senior
Carly McEachran came up next and laced a double to the right center gap. After moving to third on a wild pitch, McEachran came in to score on a ground out.
Bertrand took the mound to close out the game in the bottom of the seventh and had her first 1-2-3 inning of the day sitting the Bengals down in order securing her 20th win of the season and the Portland State softball program's 900th all-time victory.
It was not quite senior day for the Vikings against the Bengals but it felt like it. Lopez, McEachran, and Morales combined to go 4-for-9 with two runs scored, a home run, and all four RBIs for the Vikings. Bertrand threw the complete game allowing just four hits to pick up the win.
Southern Utah and Sacramento State met in the loser's bracket match up with the Thunderbirds taking the game 5-4 to eliminate the Hornets.
The Thunderbirds played their second elimination game of the day against Idaho State. Ariel Zimmerman threw a complete game four-hitter against the Bengals and allowed just one unearned run as the T-Birds eliminated the Bengals 5-1 to advance to the championship game against the Vikings.
Portland State and Southern Utah have met four times this season with the Vikings coming out on top with a 3-1 record. The teams first met at Erv Lind Stadium for their Big Sky opening weekend three-game set. Portland State took the first game of the series 5-0 behind a 3-for-3, two RBI, performance from
Lauran Bliss. Southern Utah evened the series with a 5-4 victory in game two.
Portland State took the series with a 5-4 win in the finale. Hendrickson drove in the game-winning run with a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth. She went 2-for-3 with a single and a home run. She scored twice in the game.
The Vikings are just one win away from punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year, and fourth in the last five years, under Head Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk.
