Utah Softball Shuts Out Competition at DeMarini Classic

Friday, February 19

Las Vegas, Nev. (Stephanie Lynn Craig Park)

11:15 AM

University of Utah

5-3

San Jose State

1-6

San Jose State

Utah

Utah Softball Shuts Out Competition at DeMarini Classic

2/19/2016 12:00 AM | Softball

Box Score

Feb. 19, 2016

Box Score

Las Vegas, Nev. - Utah Softball opened play at the DeMarini Desert Classic in Las Vegas by sweeping its competition this afternoon. The Utes routed Robert Morris this morning, 9-0 in five innings, before stifling San Jose State, 4-0.

Katie Donovan earned her first win of the season in the first game and then notched the save in the second. Meanwhile, Miranda Viramontes moved to 3-0 on the season with another victory.

As a team, the Utes hit .320 as they improved to 5-3 on the season. Hannah Flippen went 3-for-6 with her second homer of the year, three runs scored and three batted in. Delilah Pacheco went 3-for-7, scoring twice and knocking home a pair while Heather Bowen had three runs batted in and Bridget Castro scored twice and knocked her first home run of the year.

Utah 9, Robert Morris 0 (5 inn.)
In the circle, Katie Donovan went two innings and earned her first win of the season, tossing a strikeout and not allowing a runner to reach base. Sammy Cordova made her first outing of the season and followed Donovan with two shutout innings and a pair of strikeouts. Senior Kayce Nieto worked the fifth, also earning a strikeout and preserving the shutout.

Utah started well as Delilah Pacheco forced a bad throw with her quickness to first and wound up on third. After a walk to Hannah Flippen, Heather Bowen put Utah in front with a grounder to first. Another throwing error by the Colonials would allow Flippen to also come around and score for a 2-0 lead.

The big inning for the Utes occurred in the third. Flippen and Anissa Urtez began with singles before Bowen cracked a two-run double down the right-field line. After a walk to Bridget Castro, another RMU error put two Utah players in scoring position. The first one scored on a sac fly by Ally Dickman and then it was Bella Secaira stroking a RBI single.

The scoring continued for Utah as Pacheco smoked a ball of the third baseman's glove for a double. The extra base hit would score pinch runner Kay Kay Fronda and Kristen Stewart. Flippen, batting for the second time in the inning, added a RBI single for a 9-0 advantage.

Utah 4, San Jose State 0
In the second game of the day, Utah picked right up where it left off. Miranda Viramontes improved to 3-0 on the season with a five-inning outing that saw her strike out five Spartan batters. Katie Donovan entered later in the contest and threw two more shutout frames to pick up her first save of the season.

The long ball did the trick for the Utes as Hannah Flippen got things going with her second homer of the season in the first.

With Viramontes cruising along, Shelby Pacheco reached base to start the third. She was lifted for pinch runner Aubrey Peterson who moved to second on a groundout. After a Delilah Pacheco single, Flippen knocked the run in with a ground ball to second for a 2-0 lead.

Bridget Castro added to the total with her first home run of the season, a shot to straightaway center, for a 3-0 lead in the fourth. It was the third home run of the season for the Utes.

After the first two batters reached in the sixth for SJSU, Viramontes' day came to a close. Donovan came on and struck out the side to maintain the margin for Utah.

The Utes would get an insurance run in the sixth as Bowen started things with a single to center. Sammy Cordova came in to pinch-run and moved to third on a bad throw on a sac bunt by Kristen Stewart. Despite hitting into a double play, Ally Dickman was able to bring Cordova in for a 4-0 lead.