BILLINGS, Mont. -- The Montana State Billings softball team took a big step in completely turning their season around after taking two of three games from the No.19 ranked Vikings of Western Washington Sunday afternoon in Great Northwest Athletic Conference tripleheader action.

 

The Yellowjackets dropped the first game 7-2 as Erika Quint became the first Vikings pitcher in school history with a 20-win season, but fought back to win the final two games, 7-5 and 6-4.

 

The Jackets are now 17-18 on the season and are now 12-11 in GNAC play after winning 13 of their last 19 following a 5-11 start. The Vikings fell to 27-7 on the year and 15-4 in the conference after dropping back-to-back games for the first time this season.

 

“Today the girls did an amazing job of making adjustments at the plate and playing tough defense,” said head coach Lisa Allen. “The first game was a little rough because we had three errors and gave up too many walks. In the second and third games the girls came out strong and played great games overall. Amanda Todd did just what we needed her to do in the circle to keep our team in the game in game two, and Annaleisha Parsley came back in game three to throw, and made the adjustments that she needed to make to be successful. Kasie Conder did extremely well, coming in to get the save and Nicole Colpron had an amazing day at the plate and at third for us today, she really stepped up. Overall today was a very successful day and we are proud of the team.”

 

Coming into the series as one of the top hitting teams in the country, and one of the top power-hitting teams, the Yellowjackets cranked out six taters in the three games, including three in the final game. The Jackets hit .273 as a team and slugged .558, scoring 15 runs in the three games.

 

Junior Nicole Colpron and senior Kaycee Hoffman led the way for the Yellowjackets as the pair both hit .667 and slugged 1.333 each. Colpron went 6-for-9 with three runs scored along with a pair of home runs and three RBI. Hoffman hit 4-for-6 with a run scored, a homer and three RBI on the afternoon.

 

 

The Yellowjackets managed just two runs on three hits as Quint struck out 10 and walked just one on her way to her 20^th victory. Three errors allowed the Vikings to jump out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first two innings.

 

Senior Bobbie Lee walked in the third inning with one out and then two batters later, came around to score when Meg Harasymczuk drove Quint's 1-0 pitch out to left field for her 10^th homer of the season. WWU tacked on two more runs in the fourth to take the final 7-2 advantage.

 

Annaleisha Parsley took the loss for the Yellowjackets as the junior allowed just three earned runs after the defense committed three errors. Parsley also allowed five hits with seven walks and fanned five.

 

 

The Vikings jumped out to a 5-1 lead in game two as they used small ball to build the lead on freshman Amanda Todd, but Lee singled through the right side in the second to score Colpron and cut the lead to 5-1.

 

The Yellowjackets blew up offensively in the fifth inning, scoring six runs on five hits and taking advantage of a Viking's error to build the two run deficit.

 

The big inning began with a Hoffman walked, and after Samantha Church was brought in to pinch run, Tarn Potter connected on a full count pitch by Devyn Baker for her fourth home run of the season. Kelly Parsons then walked and was pinch ran for by Olivia Heidinger, again the Jackets cashed in as Colpron hit her first homer of the day to tie the game at 5-5.

 

The Jackets took the lead later in the inning when Lee reached on an error and advanced to second on a wild pitch. She came in to score when Becca Frank hit an RBI-double down the left field line. The final run came after Harasymczuk singled toward third, scoring Frank.

 

Todd improved to 4-5 on the year after throwing a complete game seven-hitter, allowing five runs, all earned, with five walks and six strikeouts.

 

 

The final game of the afternoon saw the Jackets put the muscle behind the ball, connecting on three home runs during the game. Hoffman and Colpron both went 3-for-3 and combined for four RBIs.

 

The first run of the game came via an error as Lee doubled down the left field line and then would later score as Harasymczuk reached on a throwing error by Erika Hendron, who was pitching for WWU, allowing Lee to score. The second runs came in when Hoffman singled to shortstop to score Harasymczuk from third.

 

Colpron scored the third run of the game as she took a 2-1 offering to center field for her second dinger of the day.

 

After a three-run fourth by the Vikings, MSUB answered with a run in the bottom of the inning on Parson's 11^th home run of the year. Quint was brought in for relief of Hendron after the play. Two more runs were scored by the Jackets in the fifth with Hoffman's team-leading 12^th homer of the year, a two-run shot to put the Jackets up 6-3.

 

Parsley took the win, moving to 7-8 after tossing six-plus innings with four runs on nine hits. She also walked four and struck out two. Kasie Conder was brought in to finish out the game and didn't allow anything as she pitched out of the jam for her third save of the year.