BILLINGS, Mont. -- Senior Bobbie Lee hit .625 (5-for-8) with three runs and an RBI as the Montana State Billings softball team earned a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference victories over host Saint Martin's University Wednesday afternoon at the SMU Softball Field.

 

“We got a great performance out of our pitching staff today,” said MSUB head coach Lisa Allen. “They did a nice job with hitting their spots and our defense did well to back them up. I thought we struggled today offensively, but we were obviously able to take advantage of their mistakes, and Bobbie (Lee) had a tremendous pair of games. It was good way to start such a long road trip. Now we have to prepare for three more tough games with a talented Western Washington group and hopefully play the way we did this past weekend in Billings.”

 

The Yellowjackets improved their overall season record to 19-18 and are now 14-11 in the conference, winning 14 of their last 15 games, including the last four in a row. The Saints dropped to 3-21 on the year and are now 2-17 in league play, dropping the season series five games to one.

 

MSUB only hit .237 (14-for-59) as a team, but managed to take advantage of nine Saint Martin's errors for nine unearned runs.

 

The MSUB pitching staff shut down the Saints, allowing just one run in the two games and pitched their first shutout of the season. Amanda Todd threw a complete game four-hit shutout in game two as the freshman struck out a season-high eight batters. Annaleisha Parsley allowed one run on eight hits, while striking out six.

 

 

The Yellowjackets jumped on the board early in game one after Meg Harasymczuk hit a two-out double to left center and then scored on an RBI-single to left field by Kaycee Hoffman in the top of the first.

 

MSUB stretched out the lead in the second inning, scoring four runs on three hits and taking advantage of two errors. After an early run in the inning, Becca Frank singled to left field to score Lee and Angela Lingle to make the score 4-0. Frank later scored when the Saints made a throw to second and she scampered home for the fourth run of the inning and a 5-0 lead.

 

The Yellowjackets scratched across runs in the fifth and sixth innings to go up 7-0 before the Saints finally scored their first run in the bottom of the sixth.

 

Parsley would improve to 8-8 on the season with the victory, while Lee went 3-of-4 with two runs scored and an RBI to lead the Yellowjackets.

 

 

The Yellowjackets again jumped on the Saints early in game two, scoring on an error by the second baseman to go up 1-0.

 

MSUB put two more runs on the board in the fourth inning without registering a hit as Tarn Potter scored on an error and then Kelly Parsons scored when Chloe Johnson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

 

The final run of the game came in the fifth, again with help from the Saints as they committed two errors in the inning. Frank scored when Hoffman lined out to second base, but an errand throw allowed Frank to take two bases and put the Jackets up 4-0.

 

That was all the lead Todd needed as she threw one of her best games of the season. Despite walking seven, Todd stayed out of trouble by striking out eight and limiting the Saints to four hits.

 

The Yellowjackets will now continue their seven game road swing tomorrow afternoon with a doubleheader in Bellingham, Wash., as they take on No.20 Western Washington for the second time in a week. The Jackets took two games in a tripleheader Sunday afternoon over the Vikings. The first game will begin at 1 p.m. PT and can be seen on WWU's live stats.