Kansas City
Oakland
'Roos Down Oakland 5-4 For Three-Game Sweep
4/24/2011 1:56:00 PM | Softball
Rochester, Mich. -- The UMKC softball team (30-14, 13-5) finished off its three-game sweep of Oakland (11-25, 5-12) with a 5-4 win on Sunday at the OU Softball Field. The 30 wins by the 'Roos leaves the squad one win shy of the school record 31 wins by the 2000 squad for most wins in a season.
In the game, junior Danielle Bennefeld led the UMKC offense, going 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored after belting her fifth home run in the past six games and second in as many games.
On the mound, sophomore Deanna Friese registered her school record 21st win of the season and record tying 33rd win of her career after tossing a complete game, seven-hitter with nine strikeouts.
After a scoreless first, the Golden Grizzlies got on the board first with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the second.
The 'Roos, though, would come right back with two runs of their own in the top of the third. Senior Lauren Rodrigues led the inning off with a solo home run to left field, and the next UMKC hitter, junior Ashley Whiteside, reached first and moved to second on an error by the first baseman. After a sacrifice bunt by junior Kaelene Curry moved Whiteside to third, fellow junior Anna Sokolik hit a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game at 2-2.
UMKC then claimed the lead one inning later when Bennefeld drilled a two-run home run over the centerfield fence, scoring sophomore Emily Ott and putting the Kangaroos on top 4-2.
In the fifth, UMKC would add an insurance run when junior Megan Ussary knocked in Curry with a single to left to extend the lead to 5-2.
Friese then held the Grizzlies scoreless over the next 2.2 innings until a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh cut the UMKC lead to one. Friese, though, would get the final OU hitter to foul out to preserve the UMKC win.
For the 'Roos, Rodrigues finished 1-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI after hitting her third home run of the season.
The Blue & Gold will be back in action again next weekend when they head to Indianapolis, Ind., for a three game series with Summit League rival IUPUI starting on Saturday.
