The Jackrabbit softball team ended the Rams Invitational/Colorado Classic in a 2-2 split over the weekend.
The team now sits with a 14-13 record on the season.
DRAKE
The Jacks started the four-game invitational with a 5-3 win over the Drake Bulldogs on Saturday, March 7.
SDSU started fast, scoring two runs in the first inning.
The first run came when sophomore Amada Vacanti hit an RBI single.
Later in the inning, senior Alivya Bollen brought a runner home to take a 2-0 lead in the game.
The Jacks held Drake scoreless in the bottom of the first and there wasn’t any scoring until senior Emma Christensen stepped up to the plate at the top of the fourth for SDSU.
The senior hit an RBI double, bringing Bollen home to put the lead at 3-0.
Freshman Bria Riebel kept the momentum up when she hit an RBI single to bring Christensen in to score.
Drake went on to score one run in the fifth, six and seventh, but a Jackrabbit run in the top of the sixth helped propel the Jacks to a 5-3 win.
NORTHERN COLORADO
After the win against Drake, the Jackrabbits put together an absolutely dominant performance against Northern Colorado later in the day, getting a 24-2 win in five innings.
The Jacks opened the game by scoring 12 runs in the top of the first.
Junior Akayla Barnard got the party started by hitting a two-run homer to take the early lead.
Later in the inning, sophomore Kendall Daniel one-upped her teammate, hitting a three-run shot to extend the lead to 7-0.
The third and final homerun for the Jackrabbits came off the bat of Daniel for her second of the game. This one was a two-run shot that extended the lead to 14-2.
Northern Colorado put up two runs in the bottom of the first and then were held scoreless the rest of the game, while the Jacks went on to score 12 more runs following the first.
DRAKE
The next day, Sunday, March 8, Drake got a rematch against the Jacks and turned the tables by handing SDSU a 5-3 loss.
Drake jumped out to a 3-0 lead through 2.5 innings before the Jackrabbits responded in the bottom of the third with a solo homer from senior Emma Vike.
Drake scored two more in the top of the fourth to extend the lead to 5-1. SDSU cut the lead down with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, including a home run from Riebel.
This was the last score of the game, and the Jacks lost 5-3.
COLORADO STATE
Later on Sunday, SDSU took their second loss in a row being held scoreless by Colorado State in an 8-0 defeat.
Colorado took a 6-0 lead after the bottom of the first and after holding the Rams scoreless in the second inning, they got back on the board with two more runs in the third.
This was the last score of the game and it ended 8-0 after five innings of play. The Jacks had just three total hits
SDSU will now look ahead to the Maverick Invitational in Arlington, Texas, which starts Friday, March 13 and comes to an end Sunday, March 15.
The Jacks will play five games against two different teams in the Maverick Invitational.
COLUMBIA
The first team the Jacks will face is Columbia. SDSU will face the Lions the weekend of March 13-15. Columbia hasn’t gotten the start to the season they wanted with a record of 3-10. But they have won their last three games.
Senior Eleni Katsivalis leads the team with 17 hits and a batting average of .405. Katsivalis has five RBIs on the season.
Sophomore Alicia Marzouca in just nine games played this season, has a team high in multiple categories, including two home runs, RBIs with eight and a slugging percentage of .542.
UT ARLINGTON
The other team the Jacks will face is the UT Arlington Mavericks on March 13 and 14.
The Mavericks currently sit with a record of 8-13 after 21 games.
Junior Mia McNulty is definitely a player to watch for UT Arlington. McNulty leads the team in batting average, hits, home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage in just 16 games.
