The U softball team split four games last weekend at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic in Las Vegas, beating Wright State and Cal Poly, but falling to Hawaii and Illinois to bring the team’s overall record to 4-5.
Center fielder Diana Phillips remained hot at the plate, going 6-for-16 (.375) while knocking in three runs over the four-game tournament.
Freshman Jessica Shiery had an RBI in every game, and Jackie Wong went 4-13 (.307) with four runs and three RBI.
JUCO transfer Meghan Dyer led the Ute pitching staff with 13 strikeouts, allowing six earned runs over 10.1 innings, and Karina Cannon allowed four earned runs over 11 innings, whiffing eight batters.
The Utes came out strong on Friday in their first game of the tournament against Wright State.
Freshmen Andrea Hoffman and Shiery each went 2-for-3 for a combined two RBI and three runs scored, leading the Utes to the 5-1 victory.
Cannon pitched the entire game, allowing just one earned run while striking out two Raider batters.
The Utes cruised out to a 4-1 lead after five innings against Hawaii in the second game on Friday, propelled by a three-run homerun by Wong, but Hawaii put together a late rally to beat the Utes in an eight inning nail-biter, 5-4.
Dyer pitched six innings, striking out eight, but allowed the Rainbow Wahine three runs on three hits in the sixth inning, opening the door for the Hawaii comeback.
On Saturday, the Utes took a 2-1 lead against Illinois after two innings but then allowed the Fighting Illini to score six unanswered runs over the final five innings, handing Utah their fifth loss of the season.
The Utes finished the tournament on a high note, however, exploding for four runs in the second inning in their final game against Cal Poly, led by a Sharee Fonoti two-run homerun, to take a 4-1 lead.
They built their lead to 6-1 in the fourth and held off a late Mustang rally to hold off Cal Poly 6-4.
The Utes will head to Texas for their next tournament, where they’ll play Northern Colorado, San Jose State, UTEP and New Mexico State at the UTEP Invitational this weekend.