It might not have been of David and Goliath proportions, and it was not featured on “SportsCenter” last night, but that was of little importance yesterday afternoon to nine cleat-wearing, glove-toting diamond dwellers on the Saint Louis University softball team.
The Bills pulled out one of their program’s biggest wins of all-time, knocking off the DePaul Blue Demons, who are currently ranked No. 9 in the country, in game one of their double-header yesterday, 1-0.
However, the Blue Demons stormed back to take the second game 9-4.
“They are always the best team in our conference every year, and we went into this series wanting to win pretty badly. Everyone across the country knows that they are an elite team,” said first baseman Beth Yagge.
Nicole Bohnenstiehl was undoubtedly the star of the game, lacing a double in the bottom of the first, which drove in the only Bills run of the game.
She then proceeded to pitch a complete game shutout, the 14th of her career, sealing the Billiken win.
Before their victory yesterday, the Billikens had not recorded a single win against a ranked team. In fact, before yesterday, the Bills had never played an opponent ranked as high as DePaul.
“It is nice to have a quality win against a team like DePaul, and hopefully we will be able to win the series tomorrow,” Yagge said.
In game two, it looked as if the Bills were going to run the table once again.
After giving up a run in the top of the first, Melissa Quist had a bunt single and Bohnenstiehl blasted a home run, the 10th of her career, to put the Bills up 2-1.
In the bottom of the second, with the Billikens clinging to a one run lead, SLU tacked on two more runs on RBI singles from Beth Puttcamp and Yagge.
The Billiken lead was up to three.
But that’s where things started to fall apart for the Billikens and their hopes of sweeping the afternoon against the Blue Demons.
In the top of the third, DePaul rallied back to plate a whopping eight runs on five hits.
Neither team scored again, but the 3rd inning outburst from the Blue Demons was more than enough to keep the Billikens at bay for the remainder of the game and earn DePaul a split for the day in C-USA action.
Today, the teams will duke it out a final time, with a noon start time at the Billiken Sports Complex.
“We want to beat that team at the top. This was such a huge win for our program, and I think it speaks volumes about the steps we have taken,” Yagge said.
