Feb. 15, 2009

Box Score

LOS ANGELES -The UIC softball team returned to action Saturday morning after the Loyola Marymount Invitational was washed out Friday afternoon, failing to host LMU, 7-4.

Due to the soggy field conditions and travel restrictions, the tournament had been revised so as to allow the Flames (1-5, 0-0 Horizon) to play in as many games as possible, starting with the first game of the day featuring LMU and UIC.

The two squads got out to slow starts, with both teams only advancing a single runner to scoring position in the first two innings.

Playing as the visiting team, LMU felt very much at home in the top of the third, when the Lions scored four runs off of three hits against freshman Ashley Hewett. The Flames would answer in the bottom of the inning, as Claire Donyanavard, pinch hitting for Alicia Abbott, drove a single through the left side that sent Melinda Macias home.

Another three runs in the fourth for LMU would put the Flames at a six-run deficit, but UIC got an offensive outburst of their own in the fifth.

With two on, Hewett would knock a double to deep right-center field, driving in Stephanie Chavez and Melissa Marinacci to start things off. One batter later, the reigning Horizon League newcomer of the year, sophomore Abbott picked up her first double of the season, allowing Marinacci to score, cutting the Lion's lead to three.

But LMU prevented the Flames from scoring anything further, holding UIC hitless in the final two innings for the win.

Hewett went 2-for-4 at the plate, picking up a pair of RBI with her fifth-inning efforts. In five innings in the circle, the freshman gave up all seven runs in the contest, surrendering nine hits while only striking out one.

After sitting out last weekend's tournament in Las Vegas, 2008 All-Horizon League First Team selection Brooke Frydendall was back in action, nabbing her first hits of the season by virtue of a 2-for-4 showing against the Lions.

Weather permitting, Sunday's docket features UIC facing Cal State Bakersfield at 11 a.m. CST, followed immediately by a Flames-LMU rematch, with a tentative start time of 1 p.m.