Creighton University
Wichita State
Softball Homers Eight Times In DH Sweep at Wichita State
4/6/2012 5:58:00 PM | Softball
WICHITA, Kan. -- Creighton Softball homered four times in each game to complete a doubleheader sweep of Wichita State at C. Howard Wilkins Softball Complex on Friday. Creighton won the first game 9-1 before a 14-4 victory that was called after six innings.
Sammy Snygg homered twice in the first game, while Alexis Cantu homered three times in the nightcap and threw a complete game to lead CU to the wins.
Creighton improved to 19-15-1 with the sweep (8-3 MVC), while Wichita State dropped to 7-28 (0-11 MVC), including eight straight losses.
The teams will conclude the three-game series on Saturday at Noon.
Game 1 (Creighton 9, Wichita State 1)
Creighton got homers from Allie Mathewson, Bri Lingl and Sammy Snygg in the first inning to post a 5-0 lead. Snygg, who entered the day with one career homer, hit her second round-tripper of the contest in the fourth inning. A short time later, Mathewson had a two-run single to make it 8-0.
WSU scored an unearned run against CU hurler Becca Changstrom in the bottom of the fourth before CU ended the game's scoring with a seventh-inning RBI from Alexis Cantu that scored Mathewson.
Changstrom improved to 10-8 with the win, striking out nine while allowing just one unearned run.
Game 2 (Creighton 10, Wichita State 4)
Creighton completed the doubleheader sweep with a 10-4 victory in game two, stretching its win streak in Valley play to six. After hitting four homers in the first game, CU socked four more long balls in the nightcap, led by three dingers from winning pitcher Alexis Cantu.
After Wichita State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, Creighton responded with a three-run homer by Liz Dike in the top of the second inning. Dike's blast, her fifth of the season, scored Bri Lingl and Taylor Flodman.
WSU tallied a run in the bottom of the second inning as well, when Holly Eckert homered.
Creighton put up a second-straight three-run inning in the top of the third. After Ellen Homan and Amy Baker singled to start the frame, Cantu cleared the wall in left-center for her seventh homer of the season, making it 6-2.
The Jays added four more insurance runs in the top of the fourth. Homan's one-out double plated Christa Ruf, and Allie Mathewson scored on a sacrifice fly by Amy Baker. Cantu then homered for the second straight at-bat, driving in Homan. It was Cantu's Valley-best eighth homer of the season, as she continues to extend her school-record for homers by a left-handed hitter in one season.
The Jays had a chance to run-rule the Shockers in the fifth inning, but WSU scored twice to extend the game.
Cantu made sure the game wouldn't go past the sixth, blasting her third homer of the game to give CU a 14-4 lead. She then closed out WSU in the circle to earn the win and improve to 6-2 this year.
Cantu led CU's offensive explosion in game two, going 4-for-4 at the plate with three homers and eight RBI. Her three homers tied a school-record (done previously by Amy Baker and Michelle Graner) and her eight RBI are believed to be a record as well. Ellen Homan added three hits and scored three times for the Bluejays.
It also marked the first time that Creighton had hit four homers or more in consecutive contests.
NOTES: The three homers in the first inning of game one marked the second time this year the Jays had homered three times in the same inning, having also done so in the second inning vs. Howard on March 4th, when Liz Dike, Allie Mathewson and Amy Baker all went yard ...Sammy Snygg owned one career home run in 85 at-bats before she homered her first two plate appearances in game one ...Creighton had just one first-inning home run all season before the three dingers in game one ...Creighton had not hit four homers in a game all season before doing so twice today ...Alexis Cantu's three homers in game two give her an MVC-best nine this season ...Creighton entered the game with an MVC-best 27 homers, then hit eight more today ...Becca Changstrom's nine punchouts in game one moved her from 10th to a tie for eighth on CU's all-time strikeout list with 278 ...Though Wichita State entered the weekend 0-9 in MVC play, all nine losses had been by three runs or less ...Wichita State is now 0-10 at home this season ...Entering this season only 56 players had ever homered three times in a game in NCAA history, and only 18 women had more than eight RBI in a game in NCAA history ...Cantu's 13 total bases in the second game are tied for seventh in NCAA history.
