SEATTLE – Despite a game-tying, seventh-inning home run off the bat of
Ellessa Bonstrom, the No. 15 University of Utah softball team suffered a heartbreaking 6-5 loss at the hands of the No. 9 Washington Huskies on Saturday night at the Husky Softball Stadium.
This defeat snaps Utah's seven-game win streak and puts them at 30-9 overall in 2023 and 12-5 in conference.
"I absolutely love coaching this team," said head coach
Amy Hogue. "They support each other and fight to the end every day they suit up to play. And today, the end was 8 hours after we arrived for pregame warmups.
"[
Julia Jimenez] had some good swings today and Bonstrom really got into that bomb she had. Most importantly, our pitchers never gave in. Syd and Halle combined to put up 7 zeros on the board, which was really incredible."
After the first two innings passed without a run for either side, the Utes put together a two-out rally to open the scoring in the third. An
Aliya Belarde walk was followed by a bunt single from Bonstrom to bring up
Julia Jimenez. Utah's third baseman ripped a double into left that brought in both runners to give the visitors a 2-0 edge.
Unfortunately for the Utes, Washington's offense came to life in the fourth, starting with a solo homer by Rylee Holtorf. With two outs, two walks sandwiched around a double loaded the bases and the tying run scored on a Utah error. SilentRain Espinoza's two-run safety gave the Huskies the lead and Kelley Lynch followed with an RBI hit of her own to cap the uprising.
Utah battled back immediately with two runs in the fifth, one of which came in when Bonstrom lifted a sacrifice fly into left to tally Utah's third run. That sacrifice fly goes down as the 12th of Bonstrom's career, tying the program's all-time career record set by Sunny Smith. Two batters later,
Sophie Jacquez sent a single through the middle that allowed Belarde to touch home and slice the Utes' deficit to one.
Bonstrom erased that slim margin when she led-off the seventh by launching a 3-2 pitch to right for a game-tying tater. The Utes would not score again however, and even though
Halle Morris managed to escape a bases-loaded, nobody out jam in the bottom of the seventh, Baylee Klingler's homer in the ninth brought the night to an end.
Up Next
The series finale is set to start at 12 p.m. PT on Sunday.
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