After a pair of heartbreaking defeats yesterday, the Park University Gilbert softball team rebounded to win game one of Saturday's doubleheader with Saint Katherine, 10-7, but suffered another tough loss in game two, 5-4.

  

Both teams' bats got off to a fast start with the Buccaneers capitalizing on Kaitlyn Bailey's inability to find the zone in the early going. The first three Buccaneers batters reached first base, loading the bases before Raylissa Garcia was hit by a pitch to bring home Nadia Gutierrez. After that, Tayler Gallegos and Shaylah Dominguez drew walks that allowed Amber Saiz and Destinee Alvarez to score.

 

In the end, Gabby Vallee bounced back in Saturday's game one from a tough loss yesterday to pick up the win, but not before the Firebirds managed five runs off of her in inning one. She also struggled to gain control early and walked the first four batters, but luckily, the Firebirds only managed two more runs and five hits off of Vallee after that and the offense was not done yet.

  

Michele Dinicola, by far the hottest bat of the series, launched a solo home run over the left field fence on a 2-0 count to lead off the third inning. Dinicola hit three home runs yesterday to break her own single-season school record; Saturday's home run marked her sixth of the season and her fourth in as many games. The junior finished game one 1-2 with two runs, an RBI and two walks.

 

The Buccaneers still trailed 6-4 going into the fifth inning; the floodgates opened when Alvarez scored on a bases-loaded walk to Danni Garcia, followed by Dominguez's double to deep left-center drove in Dinicola and Gallegos. Garcia came home on a Courtney Beckwith single before the Firebirds managed three outs.

 

Alvarez continued to swing the bat well and finished the game 2-4 with two runs, while Dominguez totaled three RBIs on one hit from the eight hole.

 

With a two run lead going into the final inning, Danae Villarreal got in on the action and drove in two more insurance runs in the top of the seventh, but Jessica Mendoza's three-up-three-down relief performance ensured a Bucs' victory.

   

Mendoza was on the bump to start game two and carried over the momentum from game one; she allowed one run and scattered eight hits through five innings.

 

The Bucs managed two runs in the first two innings. Beckwith doubled in the first and came home via Dinicola's single before Megan Campbell solo-homered over the left field fence with two outs in the second. Beckwith finished the game 3-4 with two runs and a walk.

Campbell debuted during yesterday's doubleheader; the home run marked her first hit of the season and made her the first Buc besides Dinicola to homer this season.

 

Third time proved to be the charm for the Firebirds. Mendoza stranded bases-loaded, two-out situations in the fourth and fifth innings, but the Firebirds loaded them again in the sixth with just one out and got four across to sink the Bucs' hopes of splitting the series.

 

Salvaging just one game of the four-game series with the Firebirds means that the Bucs are now 4-4 on the season. Their next series starts on Thurs., April 22 when the Bucs host their first home series of the season against La Sierra