Creighton University
Wichita State
Softball Completes Sweep With 15-7 Win at Wichita State
4/7/2012 7:39:00 PM | Softball
WICHITA, Kan. -- The Creighton Softball team won its seventh straight MVC contest on Saturday, picking up a 15-7 win to sweep a three-game series from Wichita State. Sammy Snygg went 3-of-4 with three RBI, while Alexis Cantu had her fourth homer in two days and scored three times in the romp.
Creighton improved to 20-15-1 with the win, and are now tied for second place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 9-3 mark. Wichita State dropped its ninth straight to fall to 7-29 (0-12 MVC) and is 0-11 in home games this year.
"The goal this weekend was to get back on track offensively and have quality at-bats and stick with the plan," said CU head coach Brent Vigness. "It's easy to panic when they bounced back and put up five in the fifth against us, but we stayed with our plan at the plate and continued to have good at-bats. We won ugly, but it's still a sweep on road and we'll take it."
Creighton trailed 1-0 through three innings before its bats woke up.
The Jays scored three times in the fourth. Bri Lingl doubled to tie the score before pinch-hitter Blair Lowe's single up the middle scored two more.
CU extended its lead to 8-1 with five runs in the top of the fifth. Lingl walked with the bases loaded for the first run of the frame before Snygg's two-run double. Lingl and Snygg then scored on consecutive fielder's choices, making it 8-1.
WSU answered in the bottom of the fifth with five of its own, temporarily chasing CU starter Becca Changstrom from the circle after three straight hits to open the inning. Brittany Telecky came in but hit a batter and yielded two more hits, prompting Changstrom's re-entry. She worked out of a jam to preserve CU's lead, now trimmed to 8-6.
Snygg had an RBI single in the sixth inning to make it 9-6, and Cantu later scored on a Taylor Flodman single.
In the seventh, CU erupted for five more runs to end any doubt, highlighted by Cantu's Valley-best 10th homer of the year, and a three-run round-tripper by Liz Dike. It was Dike's sixth homer of the year, but second inside-the-park homer of the campaign.
Both teams had 11 hits on the day, but Creighton took advantage of nine walks and three hit batsmen to post the lopsided win. Snygg's three hits were a career-high, as were her three RBI. Lingl also went 2-for-3 with a walk and drove in two. In addition, Dike had a team-high four RBI on the day. Changstrom threw seven innings to improve to 11-8 on the year, allowing nine runs, five hits and two walks while striking out five.
WSU was paced by three hits and two runs from Kaitlyn Carey, while Melanie Jaegers drove in three. Katie Armagost was charged with the loss, allowing seven runs (six earned) in five innings or work.
Creighton has a big week ahead of it. The Jays will visit in-state rival Nebraska on Wednesday at 6 pm for a game televised by NET-1 and NET-HD before hosting Valley leader Northern Iowa (28-9, 12-0 MVC) for a weekend series at the CU Sports Complex.
