March 26, 2004

Box Score

EAST PEORIA, Ill. - The Lewis softball team pounded 15 hits and plated eight runs in an 8-5 defeat of Findlay in the Flyers' opening game of the Great Lakes Region Showdown Fastpitch Softball Tournament.

Playing the Oilers (3-12) for the fifth time this season, Lewis (15-8) picked up its fourth victory in the series displaying a rejuvenated offense that has come to life in the past two weeks.

Sophomore Robin Martz had three hits, scored two runs and had an RBI, while junior Amy Roberts had an RBI double, scored a run and went 3-for-3 with a walk to pace the Flyer attack.

Sophomores Amy Yusko and Kalynn Russell added two hits and a run scored each; Yusko also drove in a run.

Senior Mary Jaszczak (4-3) pitched for the first time in two weeks and went 5 1/3 innings, allowing just one earned run. She struck out three and scattered nine hits to pick up the win.

Fellow senior Carrie Paradzinski retired the side in order in the seventh inning, earning the save and also becoming Lewis' all-time saves leader. The save was her fourth of the season and 14th of her career. She moves past Sarah Van Gorp to assume the top spot in school history. Her four saves also ties a single-season school record that she shares with Jaszczak and Van Gorp. It also marks the second time in her career that she has tallied four saves in a season.

After hitting .230 as a team through its first 14 games, Lewis has raised its average 30 points by hitting .303 since returning from its Spring Break Florida Trip. In the past nine games, Yusko leads the team with a .448 batting average, 10 RBI and is tied for the team lead with four runs scored. Martz is batting .406 with three doubles, eight RBI and four runs scored in that same span.

Lewis will continue play at the Great Lakes Region Showndown with three games Saturday afternoon. The Flyers play Gannon (8 a.m.), Grand Valley State (2 p.m.) and Ashland (6 p.m.).