Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State Billings softball team came close Thursday afternoon to locking up a trip to the NCAA Division II softball tournament, but the Yellowjackets dropped a pair of key Great Northwest Athletic Conference games 3-5 and 8-11 at Cenex Stadium to third-place Saint Martin's University.
 
Following the pair of losses, MSUB (31-15, 24-10 GNAC), which was sixth in the final West Region poll of the regular-season, has seen its lead over second and third in the conference shrink. The Saints (32-17, 22-12 GNAC) gain the most from the pair of wins as they are now breathing down the Yellowjackets' necks for an opportunity to nab the GNAC's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
 
“Today was a tough day for us as a team,” said head coach Lisa Allen. “We played very well defensively, but Saint Martin's came up with more timely hits and made the adjustment to our pitchers. Offensively we fought hard all day and had several great at bats; unfortunately, we just hit the ball right at people and didn't make the adjustment of hitting the ball on the ground at the end of the second game.
Game One: SMU 5, MSUB 3
 
As has been the trend lately, MSUB fell behind early in the first game. SMU scored one run in the first inning and then opened up an assault of four runs in the third before the 'Jackets could find a bit of an answer.
 
In the bottom of the fourth, Bobbi Lee led off with a single and then made it to second off a wild pitch with fellow senior Jenna VanEykeren at the plate. VanEykeren allowed two balls to pass by before she ripped a double to center field that pushed Lee across the dish.
 
Freshman Emily Osborn, who has shown she has a big, effective bat many times this season, stepped to the plate and knocked VanEykeren home with a single to the same spot.
 
In the fifth inning, it was Osborn again who came up with the RBI as she knocked a single through the right side to push Rose Harrington home. But that would be as close as the Yellowjackets would come as the Saints defense stepped up over the final two innings to not allow another run.
 
Kasie Conder pitched seven solid innings for MSUB, retiring 10 batters including the first two she faced, but still accepted the loss to fall move to 6-3 while Sam Munger claimed the win for Saint Martin's.
 
Game Two: SMU 11, MSUB 8 (8 Innings)
 
The second game progressed fairly similarly to the first as SMU edged out to an early 3-0 lead, but the Yellowjackets were able to strike sooner, answering with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first off an Osborn home run.
 
Osborn's two-run homer in the first inning gave the current team 54 home runs on the season which tied the single-season school record for home runs by the team.
 
After the Saints padded their lead with another run in the top of the second, the 'Jackets turned up the heat; scoring three runs in the bottom of the second inning to take their first lead of the day.
 
Brittney Sanders and Becca Frank scored the first two runs of the inning for MSUB before the Yellowjackets got creative. With the score tied at four-all and two outs registered, Harrington stole second base to draw the throw from the catcher and give Olivia Heidinger the opportunity to pull off the double steal to score another run and give MSUB the 5-4 lead.
 
The scoring drive continued in the following inning as Osborn and Nicole Colpron both scored to give MSUB a little more padding to their lead. But it proved to not be enough.
 
Morgan Klemm ripped a three-run home run in the fourth to tie the score at 7-7 and in the seventh inning, Tiffany Griffiths batted in Taviah Jenkins to edge the Saints ahead by one.
 
With the game on the line, Colpron had one of her biggest rips of the season, jacking a solo home run over the left field fence to keep MSUB's hopes for the win alive. The tater was the 55^th of the season for MSUB and set a new school record for home runs in a single season.
 
But things fell apart in the eighth inning as SMU scored three off three hits to claim their third win in a row and move the 'Jackets' current skid to five-straight losses.
 
After coming in during the fourth inning, Mary Grace Bywater was saddled with the loss to move to 6-3 for the season while Chelsea Felton claimed the win in five and two thirds innings of work.
 
The Yellowjackets will step out of conference action tomorrow with a home doubleheader against Great Falls University and former MSUB great Joey (Ehnes) Egan. The non-conference matchup will start at 1 p.m.
 
MSUB will then have two final chances to lock up the GNAC's automatic berth into the tournament as they will welcome the Clan of Simon Fraser University to Billings on Saturday, April 28 for a 1 p.m. twinbill.