LAS VEGAS — The UC Davis offense combined to outscore its two opponents by a 21-9 count during Saturday's second day of the Boyd Gaming Rebel Classic in Las Vegas, Nev., but the Aggies could only manage a split for the second straight day, defeating UTEP by the score of 15-2 in five innings before falling to Miami (Ohio) by the score of 7-6 in eight innings in the nightcap.
The split moved UC Davis to 5-2 overall on the season heading into Sunday's tournament finale against Georgetown, which is scheduled for an 8 a.m. first pitch at Eller Media Stadium on the UNLV campus.
Juniors
Maddie Rojas and
Marisa Given each finished with three hits on the day to help power the Aggies' offense, which saw six different hitters drive in at least two runs on the day and 10 players cross home plate — a team-high four of those runs by Given.
GAME 1: UC DAVIS 15, UTEP 2 (5 inn.)
The Aggies sent 16 batters to the plate during a 12-run fourth inning, posting a season-high 15 runs in a 15-2 five-inning rout of the Miners to open day two.
Five different Aggies drove in multiple runs on the day in support of sophomore left-hander
Brooke Yanez (3-0), who followed up her 14-strikeout performance against BYU on Friday with seven more whiffs on Saturday, allowing just three hits in the victory.
She becomes the first UC Davis pitcher to start 3-0 since current teammate
Katie Kibby opened the 2017 season campaign with a 4-0 mark.
The 15 runs scored against UTEP marked the third time this season that the Aggies have put up double digits in the run column this season (after doing so only once all of last year) and were the most since a 15-0 shutout against Bryant on March 16, 2017.
Freshman
Sommer Kisling's first career hit — an infield single — scored teammate
Riley Siegel to get the scoring started in the second, while
Maddie Rojas added a two-run double later in the inning for a three-run advantage.
After UTEP broke up the shutout with a run in the third, the floodgates opened wide in the fourth posting the most runs in a single inning in the program's Division I history — and scoring more than 12 runs in a game for only the fifth time overall since 2008.
UC Davis drew six walks and collected six hits in the frame, with the big blows coming via the bats of
Megan Bower (bases-loaded triple) and
Alyse Rojas (bases-loaded double), who plated three runs apiece, while
Riley Siegel added a two-run double,
Maddie Rojas and
Sommer Kisling had RBI singles, and
Alyse Rojas added another with a bases-loaded walk.
Marisa Given, Kisling, and
Maddie Rojas, each finished 2-for-2 in the bottom half of the order, accounting for eight runs scored and five RBI. Bower added a 2-for-4 day to extend her hitting streak to six games, while Siegel finished 1-for-2 with two runs scored.
GAME 2: MIAMI (OHIO) 7, UC DAVIS 6 (8 inn.)
UC Davis rallied from down two thanks to a three-run sixth inning, but Miami (Ohio) bounced back to tie it in the seventh and win it in extra innings, 7-6.
A back-and-forth battle saw things go the Aggies' way to start as junior
Isabella Leon's first home run of the year — a three-run shot in the home half of the first — staked UC Davis to a 3-0 lead.
That lasted until the third when the Redhawks put up five runs thanks to three home runs of their own for a 5-3 advantage, but the Aggies weren't done yet. A two-run double by
Maddie Rojas tied things up before
Marissa Jauregui's pinch-hit RBI single to right field plated Rojas with the go-ahead run and a 6-5 lead.
Back-to-back singles by Miami to lead-off the seventh led to a sacrifice fly off the bat of Johniann Wahl to tie things up, setting the stage for the international tie breaker in the eighth, where Jenny Vasquez put the Redhawks in front for good with a double to lead-off the inning.
UC Davis could not answer off Brianna Pratt in its half of the eighth as the Miami freshman retired the side in order to end the game. Pratt, the third Redhawk pitcher of the day, allowed a single hit and struck out one in three innings en route to the win.
Brooke Yanez (3-1) suffered the loss, allowing just one hit and the unearned winning run while striking out a pair over two innings, running her weekend strikeout total to 23 against only seven walks. Senior
Sara Cadona also pitched well in relief of starter
Katie Kibby, allowing a run on four hits over 3.2 innings, striking out three.
Seven different Aggies accounted for the team's seven hits.
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Providing a small-town community feel while providing a world-class academic experience, UC Davis is home to more than 37,000 students and centrally located between San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley. The No. 5-ranked public university in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education, and among the top 10 public universities nationwide according to U.S. News and World Report, UC Davis offers nearly 100 graduate programs and more than 100 academic majors across four colleges and six professional schools, ranking among the world and nation's best in numerous disciplines, including veterinary science, agriculture, and plant and animal programs.
AGGIE EVO
Launched in 2017-18, the Aggie EVO System is UC Davis Athletics' investment in the primary mission of preparing student-athletes for a successful "launch" after graduation. Thanks to a collaboration of alumni, university resources, corporate partners, coaches and Student-Athlete Outcomes staff, all Aggies are guided over four years to acquire the skills, knowledge, opportunities and tools to better know and navigate the "World of Work" after graduating from UC Davis. Follow the Aggie EVO system on Twitter and Instagram at @AggieEVO.
