JAMESTOWN — The University of Jamestown softball team took advantage of Dakota State University errors in an 8-0 game in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday, April 6, at the Nelson Family Bubble.
The Jimmies scored four of their eight runs unearned thanks to two Trojans errors. Due to the weather, the Jimmies served as the away team for both rescheduled games, which were supposed to take place on Friday, April 4, and Saturday, April 5, at the Trojans’ Thue Field.
The Jimmies had a big top of the second when Sydney Grendler hit a two-run single to give her team a 2-0 lead. The Jimies added three more runs in the inning with the help of three Trojans errors to take a 5-0 lead.
The Jimmies executed perfect small ball in the sixth inning to score another run when Kate Geiszler reached and then was eventually brought home on a Sidnie Aasen sacrifice fly to make it 6-0. The Jimmies put the game away with two runs in the seventh on four hits to take an 8-0 lead.
On the mound, the Jimmies’ Hope Ransome worked her way into and out of trouble multiple times with the Trojans leaving six players on base. Ransome finished the day going six innings of shutout ball with two hits, eight strikeouts and two walks. She was relieved by Maddie Hairgrove who went one inning while striking out two of the three batters she faced. On the other side, the Trojans’ Maycee Bricker pitched a complete game, giving up five earned runs on 14 hits while walking none and striking out two hitters.
“Just staying the course, trusting the pitches that she’s (Ransome) showing and hitting her spots,” Jimmies head coach Kevin Gall said. “We really threw a lot of inside stuff so she was able to get that call and it was giving them trouble. So we just stuck with the game plan. She fell behind a few times and we had to throw the ball over the plate and they hit it so getting ahead was a big thing to get out of that.”
UJ 8, DSU 0
UJ: 0 5 0 0 0 1 2–8
DSU: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0–0
WP: Hope Ransome (6-4), LP: Maycee Bricker (3-5)
Jimmies pull away in game two:
The Jimmies did enough in the second game of the doubleheader to get a 7-2 win over the Trojans thanks to 14 hits from eight different players.
The Jimmies (22-9) got off to another fast start in the second inning with one run crossing the plate in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead. The Jimmies had their most forceful swing of the day in the second when Tori Olson hit a single to the gap in left-center to score a run and push the lead out to 2-0. The Jimmies would tack on one more in the frame to go up 3-0. The Jimmies’ Kaitlin McCartney pushed the lead out to 4-0.
“I think we got some confidence, maybe it got a little anxious to throw the knockout blow,” Gall said. “I think there was an opportunity to do that, but we can’t try harder to do that, you just gotta do your thing. Derek Jeter didn’t try harder when the game was on the line. It was the same approach and precision, visualization and all that kind of us stuff that you’re trained to do. I think a few times we tried to rear back and throw that knockout blow and we were getting good pitches to do it, we just couldn’t do it because we were trying to do too much. It’s a weird deal but we’re trying to tell our kids to try the same, do the same thing.”
The Trojans (4-23) were able to figure it out in the bottom of the third with two runs on three hits to bring it closer at 4-2. The Jimmies got some breathing room in the sixth inning when they pushed the lead out to 5-2 and then Kayla Quintanilla hit a run-scoring triple to push the lead out to 6-2. The Jimmies were not done there as they added on one more in the top of the seventh to make it a 7-2 game.
The two teams will rematch with another doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. at the Nelson Family Bubble.
UJ 7, DSU 2
UJ: 1 2 1 0 0 2 1–7 14 1
DSU: 0 0 2 0 0 0 0–2 6 2
WP: Abby Blair (8-4), LP: Analicia Burgos (0-4)
Hello,
My name is Max O’Neill. I am a Sports Reporter at The Jamestown Sun. I am a native New Yorker, who graduated from Ithaca College in 2020 with a degree in Television-Radio.
