SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara softball dropped both games of the doubleheader to BYU in the West Coast Conference opener on Friday at the SCU Softball Stadium, losing 4-3 in the first game and 8-2 in the second.
Game 1: BYU 4 - Santa Clara 3
Santa Clara (18-15, 0-1 WCC) nearly rallied from four runs down in the seventh inning and had the potential game-tying run on base but BYU (18-9, 1-0 WCC) held on for a 4-3 win to take the first game of the doubleheader.
Cougars starting pitcher Kaysen Korth blanked the Broncos through the first six innings, pitching herself out of a couple of jams. She entered the final inning with a 4-0 lead but with two outs, the Broncos put up three runs to cut the lead to 4-3.
In the seventh, Morgan Salmon doubled home a pair and Lauren LaHood singled home Salmon to get the Broncos within a run. With LaHood on base, Abigail Charpentier came to at-bat but Korth struck her out for the final out.
It was Korth's 11 punchout of the game as she allowed six hits and three runs, all unearned, in her complete game victory to improve to 11-2 on the year.
Santa Clara loaded the bases in both the first and fifth innings but were able to come through against Korth.
BYU got an RBI double by Maddie Bejarano in the third for their first run of the game.
In the fourth, Mallory Barber singled home a run and came home on Hailey Morrow's 2-run round tripper to push the lead out to 4-0. All Cougar runs came against Broncos starter Hannah Edwards whose record fell to 6-4 on the year.
Game 2: BYU 8 - Santa Clara 2
BYU (19-9, 2-0 WCC) scored two runs in the first and held onto to a one run lead heading into the sixth when Violet Zavodnik's grand slam broke the game open in the Cougars' 8-2 victory over the Broncos (18-16, 0-2 WCC) in the nightcap.
Zavodnik finished 1-for-2 and drove in five runs as part of a 10-hit attack by BYU. Maddie Udall, Hailey Morrow and Alexis each had two hits.
In the sixth, Ailana Agbayani had an RBI single to push the Cougars lead 3-1. Two batters later with the bases loaded, Zavodnik sent the first pitch from Sage Hager over the right field wall to make it an 8-1 game.
Chloe Temples (4-5) went the distance for BYU allowing two runs on four hits while striking out seven to earn the win.
Ashley Trierweiler went 2-for-3 with an RBI to extend her streak of successfully reaching base to 28 games as she had a hit and a walk in the first game.
NEXT UP
The three-game series between Santa Clara and BYU concludes on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.
