OGDEN — Weber State softball had allowed only five hits all series against struggling Southern Utah as Mandy Sink took the circle for what — on a cloudy, blustery, chilly Saturday that followed a balmy Friday — most everyone but the SUU dugout hoped would be the final three outs of the final conference series between the two teams.

Trailing 8-0 in the fifth, two Thunderbirds reached base on a single to right and a bunt single. After Sink struck out two, she walked a batter to load the bases.

Jayne Sepulveda then worked the count full, and a clean series shutout of the T-Birds (as well as some school-year-long trivia) rode on one pitch.

Sink fanned Sepulveda swinging, her fifth strikeout of the game, and the Wildcats finished off their second run-rule win of the series and three straight blankings of the visitors.

Mandy Sink pitches around two leadoff singles and a walk, strikes out 3 and ends it

Weber State softball sweeps SUU with an 8-0 run-rule win. pic.twitter.com/C5OZosJ6mb

— WeberHQ ???? Brett Hein (@WeberHQ) April 9, 2022

Mariah Ramirez highlighted the sweep in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader with a record performance in the circle for Weber State (28-8, 6-0 Big Sky). The senior right-hander struck out a school-record 13 batters through six innings, then struck out the side in the seventh.

That ran her total to 16, tying the Big Sky’s all-time record for strikeouts in a game, in a 6-0 win.

Despite its lumps in the win-loss ledger, Southern Utah (3-29, 0-9) was coming off a three-game series at Montana in which it averaged nine runs per game. But Sink, Ramirez, Arissa Henderson and Brooke Hatfield all had a hand in keeping the Thunderbirds from crossing the plate even once in 17 innings.

“Our pitching staff has really bought in. They’re helping each other out, they work throughout the week really tirelessly. And they’re very selfless,” WSU head coach Mary Kay Amicone said. “They feed off one another, they’re happy for each other.”

Ramirez nearly had a no-hitter as well, if not for an infield dribbler between the circle and the two left-side infielders that resulted in a single for Sepulveda in the fourth. Ramirez struck out the side in the first, third, sixth and seventh innings.

“That was an outstanding performance. I haven’t been part of that very often,” Amicone said. “She just spun the ball and did fantastic. Special.”

In Friday’s opener, Henderson threw four shutout innings, allowing three hits and striking out five, and Hatfield took over in the fifth, striking out one and facing the minimum to close an 11-0 win.

After Saturday’s win, WSU became the only team in the Big Sky with a sub-3.00 ERA, dipping to 2.97 over 36 games, and batters hit a league-low .242 against Weber State. Sacramento State’s staff has an ERA of 3.60 and Portland State allows an average of .255 for second-best marks.

A large portion of credit for that can also go to senior catcher Lauren Hoe, the reigning Big Sky player of the year, for her work behind the plate.

“What’s fun about it is it’s the same mindset for catchers as it is the pitchers,” Amicone said. “They work well together, all the way around. The rapport is great, the skills are great and it’s just fun to watch them work together.”

At the plate, Emily Ruhl doubled twice and drove in three runs in Friday’s 11-0 win.

In Friday’s second game, Chloe Camarero doubled in two runs to open the scoring and scored twice in the 6-0 win.

Saturday, Henderson blasted a three-run homer to make it 4-0 after two innings. Hoe and McKell McCuiston each drove in two runs, including one each in the bottom of the fourth (following a Camarero triple) to set up the run rule for the top of the fifth.

The Wildcats continue conference play by hosting Montana (17-18, 5-4) in the coming weekend, with a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Friday, April 15, and the third game at noon Saturday, April 16. Those games also stream on ESPN+.

The season is now two months old and one month remains, with four conference series left on the slate before Weber State hosts the conference tournament May 11-14. Amicone said her team is sticking to a mantra of getting 1% better each day.

“We’re in the thick of it,” Amicone said. “We’ve always got something to work on that will make us better. We have a lot of things we want to do before the end of this year. You don’t get better sitting back and thinking we’ve arrived, because we haven’t.

“I applaud them with their enthusiasm and their work ethic, and we’ll just keep getting after it.”

BLANKING THE ‘BIRDS

It wasn’t just a softball series shutout riding on Sink’s full-count, bases-loaded pitch to end Saturday’s win. That swinging K finished off a seven-game shutout performance against Southern Utah in the four team sports where shutout scoring is possible, sending the T-Birds fluttering out of the Big Sky.

In the fall, football annihilated SUU 62-0 and women’s soccer made a 1-0 shutout stand up. In the winter, volleyball ran up two 3-0 sweeps, and this weekend’s 11-0, 6-0, 8-0 softball shutouts capped the feat.

BIG SKY STANDINGS

Weber State (6-0) holds a two-game lead over Northern Colorado (4-2) and Sacramento State (4-2) in first place after UNCo lost Saturday on an extra-inning, walk-off homer at Portland State (5-4). PSU and Montana (5-4) are tied for fourth after sixth-place Idaho State (3-6) took two from the Griz this weekend. SUU (0-9) is three games in last place.

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