Cold Fairfield bats balance out heat wave vs. Demons

Temperatures approaching triple digits Monday still weren?t enough to heat up the Fairfield bats.

However, Washington?s pitching duo of Greta Smeins and Maddie Bohr may have had something to do with it.

Smeins and Bohr combined to allow just four hits and two runs on the evening en route to a doubleheader sweep of the Trojans with 3-0 and 7-2 victories.

?The pitchers did a nice job moving the ball around and we played excellent defense behind them,? said Washington head coach Angie Shrader. ?We had maybe two errors on the night, and if we can combine that kind of defense and pitching we?re a pretty good ball club.?

The offensive woes that have plagued Fairfield for much of the season reared their ugly head once more on Monday as Smeins pitched a complete game one-hitter while striking out nine to outduel Trojan freshman Mackenzie Laux. After a tough-luck 1-0 loss in the first match up between the two on June 4, Laux was once again saddled with the loss on Monday despite fanning 10 Washington batters.

?We?ve had a few times over the course of the year where it looked like we were getting a little better, but we?d take a step forward then two or three backward,? said Fairfield head coach Bob Bradfield, who?s team drops to 3-7 in conference games. ?I was disappointed tonight striking out 9-10 times ? that?s too many. We just aren?t adjusting and continue to swing at bad pitches like we have been all year.?

The Washington offense got to work early, and although Laux worked herself out of a first inning jam, she couldn?t quite do the same in the third ? an inning that Washington tallied two runs ? enough to win the game right there.

?They looked like they were ready to play and we were busy complaining about how hot it was ? even when we were out on the field,? Bradfield said. ?They had a bus ride here so we should have been more ready to go, but give them credit ? they wanted to win and we came out a little bit flat.?

A walk to Bohr followed up by a Shelby Marie single set up Lindsey Davis? two-RBI rip to left field to put the first points on the scoreboard. From there, Smeins cruised the rest of the way allowing the first and only hit of the game to Brittany Craff in the third inning. A Fairfield threat in the fourth inning that failed to record a run was the last sniff of points the Trojans would get as Smeins retired the final nine Fairfield batters in order to end the game.

Washington once again jumped on Fairfield early in game two plating a run in the second inning to take a quick lead ? a lead they would never surrender. A Lauren Vittetoe leadoff double put the Demons in business and set up a slow Caitlin Fishback roller to the right side of the infield. Vittetoe came around to score an unearned run on the play. The run was one of the many game two examples of getting people on base and letting good things happen for Washington.

?It did get contagious once somebody got on base and lit a little fire under some of the girls,? said Shrader. ?We ran the bases extremely well and anything we could take advantage of, we did tonight.?

More baserunners in the top of the fifth proved to work out once again for Washington as Blair Farris and Lucy Libe both singled off Trojan starter Rachel Robinson to start the inning. A clutch one-out double to the center-field fence off the bat of Marie plated two more Demon runs. Washington scored one more in the inning to take a 4-0 lead.

After giving up just one hit in four innings of work, Bohr was relieved by Smeins in the fifth inning after conceding a lead off walk to Craff. Katie Anderson and Tori Ogden came up with big hits off Smeins to cut the lead in half, but that?s all the Trojans could muster. As outs ticked away, Washington scored three more that go down as insurance in the top of the sixth to come away with the 7-2 victory.

?On the scoreboard they may have looked easy, but they?re always tough on the heart. They put up two runs late in that second game, which got a little scary, but we?ll take two wins any way we can get them every time,? Shrader said.

Bohr earned the win and was charged with one run for Washington ? a team that moves above the .500 mark at 12-11 for the season and is 5-7 in Southeast Conference play. Fairfield will be back in action tonight on the road against Centerville.