POCATELLO, Idaho – The Idaho State Bengals ended the conference series with the Northern Colorado Bears in dramatic fashion with Ava Brown's 8th inning walk-off homerun Saturday afternoon.
The Bears and Bengals bats were on fire Saturday afternoon as all five combined runs were scored on home run hits.
For her second start in a row, Jordan Schuring dazzled in the circle only allowing the two runs with three strikeouts and only walking one UNC Batter. The Bengal defense held strong grabbing 10 flyouts and 10 groundouts.
After three innings of scoreless play, UNC struck first with a two-run home run in the top of the 4th. The Bengals responded with an Olivia Robison solo homerun to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Down a run in the bottom of the sixth, Alyssa Yee stepped up to the plate and launched a bomb over the center field wall tying the game 2-2.
After a scoreless seventh inning, the two teams headed to extra innings.
Schuring didn't give the Bears a chance to respond, striking out the first batter in the eighth and forcing the Bears into a fly out and line out to go three up three down.
After two outs in the bottom of the inning, Ava Brown came up to bat. Battling with the UNC pitcher, Brown worked into a full count. On the do-or-die pitch, Brown connected, sailing the ball over the right field wall and walking off the game 3-2.
The win gave the Bengals the 2-1 series win over the Bears, and was witnessed by the 2013 Big Sky Championship Bengal softball team who were celebrating their 10-year reunion in Pocatello this weekend.
In 15 innings pitched, Jordan Schuring finished 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA. The Bengal pitcher only allowed two runs and 11 hits while only walking 3 of the 58 batters she faced.
In four at bats Sophia Stoddard hit .750 with an extra base hit. Alyssa Yee followed with a .333 average with three hits and two runs.
The Bengals turned three double plays and had 66 putouts on the weekend.
The Bengals next head to Utah Valley for a single game, then onto Portland to take on the PSU Vikings in the next Big Sky Series next weekend.
A series of game highlights are available at: Brown's Walk-Off Homerun leads Bengals over Bears 3-2, Wins Series - Idaho State University Athletics (isubengals.com)
