April 2, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Notre Dame softball team (19-13) dropped its first doubleheader of the season to snap a seven-game win streak with two losses to 16th-ranked Illinois-Chicago (44-13) on Thursday at Flames Field in Chicago, Ill. The Irish were ahead in both games, but fell 6-3 in the first game and 8-3 in the second.
In the opening game of the doubleheader, the Flames scored two runs in the first inning to move ahead 2-0 until the Irish tied the game on senior Kris McCleary’s (Westerville, Ohio) two-run home run to left field. Notre Dame then took the lead in their next at bat after freshman Kas Hoag (Wallingford, Conn.) singled and scored on sophomore Melanie Alkire’s (Union City, Calif.) RBI-triple to right-center field. The Flames, however, rallied in the bottom of the six inning on Jennifer Tiffany’s two-out single, which scored two runs, to take back the lead at 4-3. Illinois-Chicago designated player Gina Arnold then added some insurance runs with a home run to score Tiffany from second and take a 6-3 lead into the top of the seventh. Flames’ pitcher Sam Iuli the retired Notre Dame sophomore Lizzy Lemire (Irvine, Calif.), freshman Jarrah Myers (Carbondale, Kan.) and sophomore Dani Klayman (San Diego, Calif.) to pick up her 25th win of the season. Angela Bessolo (Lakewood, Calif.), meanwhile, took the loss for the Irish in game one to drop to 6-4.
In game two, the Irish regained the momentum in the top of the first inning when Lemire hit her second home run of the season to score senior Amy Laboe (Monroe, Mich.) and Alkire, who had both walked. The Flames tied the score with a run in the bottom of the second and two in the bottom of the third and later took the 4-3 lead with a run in the bottom of the fifth. In the bottom of the fifth, UIC added four more runs all on RBI-singles to eventually win 8-3. Notre Dame pitcher Michelle Moschel (Naples, Fla.), who made her second collegiate start, dropped her first game of the season to fall to 4-1, while Rory Gonzales-Gould took the loss.
The Irish host Pittsburgh, Saturday, April 3 at 12 p.m. in both teams’ BIG EAST conference openers.