03/16/07

In their final game in the Tucson desert, the Saints dropped a 6-4 decision to the Edgewood College Eagles in a game that saw only three earned runs scored between the two teams.

Chelsey Weiss, a spark plug throughout the team's stay in Arizona, led off the game with a single in the top of the first and, following a wild pitch that moved her to second, came around to score the game's first run on a double by Erica Kozacek.

The Saints surrendered a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning, though, on three bunt singles and another single that barely made it out of the infield to go down 2-1 to the Eagles.

A pair of runs in the third then one in the fourth put the Saints back on top, a lead they maintained after Edgewood scored an unearned run in the bottom half of the fourth inning.

Starting pitcher Rilee Dawson struck out the first two Eagles batters in the bottom of the fifth before allowing a single that put the tying run at first. With two outs Edgewood caught a break with an infield error that would have ended the inning otherwise. The next batter up swatted a three-run homer that moved the Eagles ahead 6-4, the game's final score.

The Saints would have runners on first and third in the sixth with two outs but failed to score, and then went down 1-2-3 in the seventh to close out the loss.

Dawson pitched six innings for the Saints in defeat but only surrendered two earned runs on nine hits. She didn't walk a single batter and rung up seven strikeouts.

Entering the game, the Saints had been riding a five game win streak before the loss to the Eagles evened their record to 6-6 on the season. Edgewood improved to 3-3 on the year with the win.