Pack pitchers come up lame in doubleheader sweep

Fort Lewis 8, CSU-Pueblo 2
Fort Lewis 7, CSU-Pueblo 0

By Nate Pepper
The Thunderwolves dropped to 8th place in the RMAC standings Saturday as they lost the first two games of the four-game series with the Fort Lewis Skyhawks, losing 8-2 and 7-0.

The Thunderwolves and Skyhawks came into Saturday's games tied for 7th place in the RMAC, with this weekend's four-game set being of monumental importance.  But after Saturday's games, the Skyhawks find themselves alone in 7th place.

The Pack were unable to get anything going against the strong-throwing Casey Moone in the first game, as they lost by a score of 8-2.  The second game was not much better for the Pack as they were unable to get the timely hits, losing 7-0.

"Timely hitting is the only way to put it," Pack coach Shane Showalter said.  "We hit the ball hard all game long (second game) but not when we needed to."

Fort Lewis' Moone came into the day with a 2.23 ERA and 95 strikeouts, and showed no sign of slowing down as she burned past the Thuderwolves in the first game of the doubleheader.

"There was a lot of hype about this pitcher (Moone) coming into the game today because she has been able to cut teams down as of late," Showalter said.  "We got too hyped up and were swinging at pitches early in the count."

Moone gave up only two runs on four hits as she struck out 11 Thunderwolves in the first game.

Thunderwolves Amber Higby was the starter for the Pack in the first game until the top of the 5th inning when she tried to stop a line drive hit back up the middle with her throwing hand.  Higby was able to finish up the 5th inning but was unable to come back into the game.

Mary Oppenhein got the start for the Skyhawks in the second game in which she allowed no runs on 6 hits in five innings of work. Alyssa Hansen got the nod for the Pack the second game and she pitched the complete game, giving up seven runs on 10 hits.

The Thunderwolves were able to get seven hits in the second game but were were not able to score. They stranded four runners on base.

The Thunderwolves will need to win Sunday's two games to get back into a tie with Fort Lewis for the 7th spot in the RMAC. Sunday's games will start with the first pitch at 11 a.m.