Idaho State Walks Off In Regular Season Finale

By Idaho State Athletics,

It was only fitting that seniors,andrallied the Idaho State softball team to a 9-8 win over North Dakota on Senior Day at Miller Ranch Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Bengals entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 8-6 but would rally to win the game on a one-out walk off single by Breakwell.

ISU finished with 15 hits on the day with the trio of seniors combing for six hits. Lopez was 2-5 with two RBIs. Galasso was 2-3 with two walks while Breakwell was 2-5 with four RBIs.

“They took a risk on this program,” Idaho State coachsaid on the three seniors. “It was nothing. For them to come here with no field and no promise of anything except that all I said was were are going to win. ‘Trust me.’ They are three tremendous young women.”

led the Bengal offense with three hits and one RBI andalso had two hits.earned the win by pitching 3.2 innings and allowing three hits, two runs, two walks and four strikeouts.

North Dakota had two-run homers in the first and third innings but the Bengals strung together six runs on five hits and took advantage of one UND error in the second inning. ISU led 6-4 through five innings until North Dakota scored four runs in the top of the sixth inning.

“We got a win,” Wright said. “It was ugly but it got done. It was a senior day so when it really counted all three seniors participated and did a good job with winning that softball game. We had a rough day on the mound. Those things happen. North Dakota is a good hitting team. They have as many home runs as we do. We were concerned about that coming in. I thought we missed a lot of spots. We will bounce back and get better.

After North Dakota took the 6-4 lead in the sixth inning the Bengals knew that the opportunity to rally in the seventh inning would be a good learning experience that would benefit them in coming games.

“I told them team in the sixth and seventh innings that ‘this is a great opportunity for you to work together to be in a situation where you might have this in a few games. You need to be ready. Let’s practice it and go to work.'”

The Bengals did more than practice it. They executed Wright’s demand to her team with perfection.

led off the inning with a single to right field and Taylor followed with a single to left. She would advance to second on the play.then walked to load the bases with no outs. Burnett would single home the first run of the inning with an infield single. Lopez then grounded out with the bases loaded but she drove in the tying run. After Galasso was intentionally walked, Breakwell hit her single to center field to lift ISU to the win.

“I thought the senior class did a really nice job of battling and hanging in there,” Wright said. “We talked a lot this week about killer instinct. I thought they had it in the final inning.”

Idaho State will host the Idaho Central Big Sky Conference Softball Tournament May 7 -9 at Miller Ranch Stadium. The event is free to the public. Idaho State will play May 7 at 1 p.m. vs. Southern Utah. Weber State and Sacramento State then play at 4 p.m.