SPEARFISH, S.D. – Mother Nature cooked up her best weather weekend yet of the softball season, but it was the visiting Skyhawks of Fort Lewis College (12-27, 10-20 RMAC) who left with a pair of wins over the Black Hills State University softball team (12-25, 11-21 RMAC) on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Yellow Jacket Field.
 
GAME 1: FLC 2, BHSU 0
 
PITCHING DECISIONS:
Win: Aimee Shanks (6-14)
Loss: Laci Peskey (5-11)
 
If you like pitching, Game 1 in the sun today was your game. Both starting pitchers allowed a combined eight hits, but it was the Skyhawks who pushed a pair of runs across in the sixth inning to steal a win to open the series.
 
Laci Peskey (Fr., Waller, Texas) was dominant in the circle today, sitting down the first eight Skyhawk hitters she faced to start the game.
 
The Yellow Jacket bats were kept quiet by the Fort Lewis ace, who scattered just three BH hits over the seven innings.
 
The Skyhawks capitalized on a pair of singles to lead-off the sixth inning with a two-out double down the line in what proved to be the only runs of a well-pitched ball game.
 
GAME NOTES

• Lily Simmons, Gianna Haley, and Taylor Dowden picked up the hits for the Yellow Jackets in the game.
• Haley now has recorded a hit in four-straight games, while picking up her sixth double of the season.
• Simmons and Haley both also worked walks in the contest.
• In her 17^th start in the circle this season, Laci Peskey allowed just five hits and had three innings of setting the Skyhawks down in order.
• With the complete game – her 11^th of the season – she has now crossed the 100 innings mark in the circle for the season (100.1).
• She needs just 14 innings to enter the top-10 for innings pitched in a single-season.

GAME 2: FLC 7, BHSU 4
 
PITCHING DECISIONS:
Win: Hailie Mann (6-13)
Loss: Malaya Coleman (2-4)
 
The bats would wake up in Game 2 for Black Hills State, but it would prove to not be enough as Fort Lewis would take the sweep on the day with a 7-4 Game 2 victory.
 
The first runs of the game would be for the home squad, as Black Hills State took advantage of a pair of Skyhawk errors in the second. However, Fort Lewis would plate three runs themselves in the next half inning to take the 3-2 lead, a lead they would not surrender the rest of the way.
 
The fourth inning saw FLC put one more run up to take a 4-2 lead, but a Shayla Tuschen (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) home run in the bottom half would once again make it a one-run game at 4-3.
 
Three more runs in fifth for Fort Lewis would make it 7-3 after five full innings.
 
Tyler Whitlock (Jr., Erie, Colo.) would send a missile down the left field line for the second BHSU home run of the day, cutting the deficit to three at 7-4. The Yellow Jackets would put runners on second and third in their final at-bat of the day, but be unable to push across any runs in the seventh.
 
GAME NOTES

• For the fourth-straight series, the BH offense has had multiple home runs.
• With their 10 hits on the day, the BHSU offense has now posted double-digit hits for the 10^th time this season.
• A pair of Yellow Jackets both hit their first home runs of the season today: Shayla Tuschen and Tyler Whitlock.
• Gianna Haley would pick up her second double of the day, bringing her season total up to seven.
• Kayla Lee went 3-for-4 in Game 2, recording her first three-hit game of the season and eighth multi-hit game.
• She also picked up her second triple of the season, now holding the team lead in the category.
• Audrey Fouras went 2-for-3 on the game, picking up her fifth multi-hit game.
• Whitlock now needs just five hits to reach 100 for her career.
• Haley pushes her hit streak up to five-straight games.

• After Day 1, BHSU now needs just three doubles and four complete games (in the circle) to set new season records.

Up Next: Black Hills State and Fort Lewis will wrap up the four-game set tomorrow beginning at 11:00 a.m. from Yellow Jacket Field.