No. 15 Oregon State Edges UW Softball, 1-0
May 16, 2002 | Softball
Oregon State scored one run in the bottom of the first and held on for a 1-0 victory over the Wisconsin softball team today in the opening round of the NCAA Championship. The Badgers (31-21 overall) return to action today at approximately 8:30 p.m. Central, facing Illinois Chicago, who lost to No. 1 seed Nebraska in the tournament's first game.
Junior Andrea Kirchberg tossed the complete seven innings for the fifth-seeded Badgers, striking out four batters in the contest and falling to 20-16 on the season with the loss. OSU managed just three hits on the UW ace.
Oregon State (39-23), the No 2 seed in the regional, took advantage of a pair of Wisconsin errors to take the early lead. In the bottom of the first, Michelle Chariton hit a chopper to third that bounced off Diana Consolmagno to give the Beavers their first base runner. After a hit by Brynnen Guthrie gave OSU two runners, designated player Shelly Prochaska drilled a shot to third that went between Consolmagno's legs, allowing Chariton to score from second.
'I just thought Andrea Kirchberg pitched a great game for us,' said UW head coach Karen Gallagher. 'At this point in the year when you make errors against good teams like Oregon State, they are going to capitalize. They did and it hurt us. We didn't back her up. We had opportunities offensively and we didn't capitalize. It was a well-played game other than three errors and we need to somehow alleviate that in the second game.'
Wisconsin, which tallied three hits in the contest, put runners in scoring position twice. In the top of the second, sophomore Meghann Reiss singled to the shortstop with one out and moved to second on a hit by junior Nicky Starry, but a pop-up to first by catcher Boo Gillette ended the inning.
Monica Hoffman, who came in on relief duty in the fourth inning, got into trouble in the fifth, hitting Consolmagno with a pitch and walking Mandy Liles to put two Badgers on. Hoffman struck out UW freshman Kristin Zacher to retire the side, one of five Ks for the Beaver sophomore.
