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CONWAY, Ark. – Trailing by two heading into their last at bat, the Huskies got one run and runners on second and third with no outs but couldn't tie the game as HBU fell to Louisiana-Monroe, 4-3, on Saturday evening at the Central Arkansas Invitational.
The Warhawks (10-5) got to HBU (6-5) starter
Emily Mueller quickly with a leadoff single to start the bottom of the first followed by a walk. Melanie Coyne then doubled to right center to bring a run in and put runners on second and third. The next batter, Jayden Mount, drove a sacrifice fly to left to bring home another run and give the Warhawks two runs through just four batters.
The Huskies had a response in the top of the second with
Nicole Shedd opening things with a single to left center followed by a bunt single by
Kassie James.
Megan Hiers dropped a sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position and with two outs,
Brooke Bushman drew a walk to load the bases. A wild pitch with two outs allowed Shedd to score and pull HBU within one.
In the bottom of the third, ULM got a leadoff single from Sydney McKay and she promptly stole second. After the next batters lined out and grounded out to short, respectively, Mount came up with a timely single up the middle to bring McKay across the plate to make it a 3-1 ballgame.
With a new pitcher in the circle to start the fifth, the Huskies got a leadoff double from
Libby Brown and a
Heidi Jaquez sacrifice bunt moved her over to third. That was enough give
Demi Janak the opportunity to bring Brown home with a sac fly to center and again get HBU within one.
The Warhawks took advantage of a pair of Husky errors and a walk to scratch across their fourth run in the bottom of the sixth without recording a base hit.
Down to their final at bat, the Huskies got a leadoff walk by pinch hitter
Shae Bibby.
Amber Lotz came on to run for Bibby and moved up to second on a Brown infield single. With two on and nobody out, Jaquez stroked a double to right to score Lotz and put runners on second and third with no outs. Janak grounded out to short before Shedd struck out swinging. With two outs, James grounded out to third to end the game.
Mueller, a senior, took the loss in the circle, falling to 3-3 on the season. She gave up four runs, just three earned, on five hits with two strikeouts and four walks.
Brown was 2-for-4 at the plate with a double and one run scored. Janak and Jaquez had one RBI a piece while Lotz and Shedd scored the Huskies' other runs.
The Huskies close out the Central Arkansas Invitational on Sunday with a single game against the host Bears at 11:30 a.m.
