Cardinals down Snow, but bow out to Salt Lake in Region 18 tourney

TWIN FALLS — Sophomore Faith Nichols hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning to cut the North Idaho College deficit to 5-3, but that was as close as the fourth-seeded Cardinals could get, falling to second-seeded Salt Lake 6-3 in a loser-out game in the Region 18 Tournament on Wednesday at the College of Southern Idaho. 

NIC, which beat Snow 6-5 earlier on Wednesday, finished 21-26.

Sophomore Corine Doran singled to score freshman Emily Hanchey to make it 3-2 in the third inning.  

Irma Medina hit a solo home run to extend the Bruin advantage of 5-2 in the bottom of the third. 

Salt Lake (35-11), which lost 8-0 in a semifinal game to top-seeded Southern Idaho (38-14), advances to the championship game where the Bruins will have to beat the Golden Eagles twice to advance to the NJCAA World Series May 19-24 at the Pacific Avenue Athletic Complex in Yuma, Ariz. 

Against Snow, freshman Hannah Brockman and Nichols drove in two runs each for NIC, which held off the Badgers, who pulled to within a 6-5 deficit on a solo home run by Kamryn Allen, her second homer of the game, in the seventh inning before recording the final out. 

NORTH IDAHO 6, SNOW 5 

North Idaho    110    200    2    —    6    11    0 

Snow        300    000    2    —    5    9    2 

Maelynn Durham, Maliyah Mann (1) and Megan Nelson; Taimane Laogali-Aloy, Avery Thorkelson (7) and Kamryn Allen. 

HITS: NIC — Brockman 3, Doran 2, Larney, Nichols 2, Drake, Nelson, Yamaguchi. Snow — Fisher, Allen 3, Carrasuqel, O'Neal 2, Laolagi-Aloy, Roberts. 2B — Doran. 3B — Roberts. HR — Doran, Nichols, Fisher, Allen 2. 

SALT LAKE 6, NORTH IDAHO 3 

North Idaho    002    100    0    —    3    6    1 

Salt Lake    302    001    x    —    6    10    1 

Kristine Schmidt and Megan Nelson; Aubrie Hansen, Taylor Hagen (7) and Hannah Barlow. 

HITS: NIC — Hanchey, Doran, Drake, Nichols, Nelson 2. SLCC — Shumway, Lewis 4, Pond, Medina, Reynen, Schneider, Coates. 2B — Drake, Lewis. HR — Nichols, Medina. 

REGION 18 SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT
At College of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls 

TImes PDT

Tuesday's Games 

Salt Lake 13, Snow 4, 5 innings

Southern Idaho 9, North Idaho 0, 5 innings

Wednesday's Games 

Southern Idaho 8, Salt Lake 0, 5 innings

North Idaho 6, Snow 5 (Snow eliminated)

Salt Lake 6, North Idaho (North Idaho eliminated)

To view the full article, please visit the CDA Press at this link.