Oregon State
Northwestern
No. 24 Beavers Defeat Northwestern, 12-1, at Easton Invitational
March 01, 2013 | Softball
March 1, 2013
FULLERTON, Calif. – The No. 24 Oregon State softball team won its 12th consecutive game Friday when it defeated Northwestern for the second time this season, 12-1, in six innings at the Easton Invitational. The Beavers pounded out 13 hits with four players collecting multiple hits.
Senior Ashley Sanchez led the team with three hits in four at-bats, scoring three runs and driving in two runs. She scored one of those runs in the top of the first on a single by Lea Cavestany to give the Beavers an early 1-0 lead. That lead expanded to 4-0 in the third when freshman Natalie Hampton hit a three-run homer to left-center that scored Sanchez and shortstop Elizabeth Santana.
OSU (14-4) scored runs in five of its six at-bats. In the fourth, Ally Kutz singled and Hannah Bouska doubled to set the table. Center fielder Dani Gilmore chased Kutz home with an RBI single to right, and Bouska later scored on a fielder's choice with Sanchez getting credit for the RBI.
After a run in the fifth, the big blow in the sixth inning came from third baseman Desiree Beltran. With the bases loaded and the Beavers ahead, 8-1, she crushed a 1-1 pitch deep over the left-center field fence to put a nice cherry on the afternoon.
Senior starter Tina Andreana improved her record to 4-1 by tossing all six innings and allowing just three hits while fanning five. Gilmore, Santana and Hampton were the other Beavers with two hits.
Beltran homered again in the nightcap against Iowa in a game the Beavers would drop, 9-3. She homered in the sixth inning to cut Iowa's lead to 4-2, but a five-run Hawkeye seventh put the game out of reach. Gilmore reached base three times in four plate appearances.
