Courtesy of Northern Colorado Athletics
PHOENIX, Ariz. – Head Coach Shana Easley and the Northern Colorado softball team ended their opening weekend on a high note defeating the #21 ranked Tulsa Golden Hurricanes by a score of 2-0. This win is the first in UNC softball DI history where the Bears took down a ranked opponent. Tulsa came into the game with a record of 4-0. Tulsa was shut out only three times last year with one of those coming from Oklahoma. With the win the Northern Colorado move to 2-3 on the season.
“We were very excited to get the win today over Tulsa,” said Easley. “We competed and had great focus throughout the entire game. We executed at a high level with our pitching and defense.”
UNC got the ball rolling in the bottom of the second when Kaitlin Flynn took the batter’s box. Flynn continued her fantastic opening weekend hitting a homerun to left field giving the Bears the early one run lead.
With the homerun Flynn continued her prosperous weekend batting, .545, with 2 RBI, one homerun and an exceptional slugging percentage of .818.
“Flynn had a terrific weekend at the plate and on defense,” said Easley. “It’s great to see her starting off the season so well. She’s going to have a great year for us.”
The highlight of the game came from the excellent pitching performance of Jayme Reddacliff. Reddacliff threw a complete game shutout only giving up three hits. Reddacliff also picked up a strikeout on the game.
Reddacliff pitched a total of 21 innings on the weekend striking out a total of ten batters.
The Bears extended their lead to by two in the bottom of the fourth off a Morgan Yuhas homerun. Yuhas sent the ball flying over the left field wall, giving her an opening weekend batting average off .308 with 3 RBI.
The Bears ended the game with Reddacliff only giving up two hits to Tulsa.
The softball team will get back to practice this week before heading to Fayetteville, Arkansas for a seven game series beginning of Feb. 20.
