BYU NewsNet - Women's Softball Defeats New Mexico in Final Regular Season Series

The BYU Women's Softball team had an exciting final weekend of regular-season play in New Mexico, including two wins against New Mexico Friday and Saturday, with final scores of 4-0 and 8-4, respectively.

Friday's win was in large part due to the unmatched skill of BYU freshman pitcher Paige Affleck, who threw her first collegiate no-hitter. Pitching was a definite reason for Cougar success in the most recent Lobos-Cougar series.

"Affleck threw really well tonight," BYU coach Gordon Eakin said. "As a team, we did a nice job."

The Cougars were not only tough defensively, but were on fire at the plate as well. A two-run homer from Daniela Snow and solid hitting by Stephanie Platt- Hopkins and Kristin Delahoussaye led to a four-run inning.

With Affleck reigning from the mound, these runs were all it took to secure a BYU lead and chalk up Friday's game as another Cougar win.

Saturday's game brought the same success in the end, but the Lobos battled more throughout the game.

Even though New Mexico fell to BYU, 8-4 in game two, the Lobos pounded out four runs off nine hits but could not overcome a late rally by the Cougars. UNM's Lindsey Elcess highlighted the game when she went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

The Cougars fell behind early when the Lobos smashed out two runs off two hits. BYU promptly responded in the next inning when Jessica Purcell got to first on a walk, and reached home off of Stephanie Platt- Hopkins' single.

New Mexico was able to advance its lead with an RBI single in the third inning, but were soon matched and surpassed by BYU.

Snow-Willing tied the game 4-4 in the top of the sixth inning when she batted in Caschjen Davis from second base, who hit a double earlier. Kristin Delahoussaye batted in another runner with a powerful single. The Cougars took their first lead of the game at 5-4, after six and a half innings.

In the top of the seventh, BYU loaded the bases with no outs and drove in three runners to stretch its lead to 8-4. Snow-Willing and Platt-Hopkins both grabbed RBI's and Delahoussaye brought in a run when she was hit by a pitch, before the Lobos retired BYU.

Despite giving up a walk and a single in the final inning, BYU held onto their lead for the 8-4 win.

With the loss, New Mexico fell to 25-26 overall and 7-13 in the Mountain West Conference. BYU improved to 42-18 and 14-6 in conference play, good enough for second place behind front-runner San Diego State.