Johnson Hits Walk-off Grand Slam to Top UNLV
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Senior Chelsea Johnson of The University of New Mexico softball team blasted a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning on Friday night to earn a 5-2 victory over UNLV at Lobo Softball Field in UNM’s conference opener. Johnson’s walk-off grand slam marks her second of the season, her fifth homerun this year.
With the win, the Lobos improve to 7-19, 1-0 in the Mountain West, while UNLV is now 17-8 on the season and kicks off league play 0-1. The two teams will battle twice more in the three-game series with a pair of noon contests on Saturday and Sunday at Lobo Softball Field.
Sophomore Jensen Main earns the win for the Lobos and her third complete game of the season. She improves to 4-8 on the season after allowing just two runs in 7.0 innings while posting a pair of strikeouts.
Both teams blasted solo homeruns, UNM In the bottom of the second to take a 1-0 lead and UNLV in the top of the fourth to tie it up 1-1, before the Runnin’ Rebels broke the tie in the top of the seventh.
UNLV’s lead-off batter walked and advanced to second on a highly-contested obstruction call. A sacrifice bunt advanced the runner and potential-game-winning run to third. A UNLV misplay caused the runner to attempt to cross the plate on a strike and Lobo catcher Sydney Broderick made the tag to keep it 1-1 with two outs.
The Runnin’ Rebels eventually scored the go-ahead run on three straight two-out singles to take a 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the frame.
The Lobos led off the bottom of the seventh with a pinch hitter that struck out for the first out of the inning – and then things got interesting.
Junior Sydney Townes sent a single through the left side, followed by sophomore Cameryn O’Grady who was hit by a pitch to put two Lobos on base. When freshman Sam Oliver walked, O’Grady advanced to second and Townes advanced to third to set up loaded bases for UNM’s most consistent hitter.
Johnson, entering the game batting .329 on the season, stepped to the plate and worked the count to her favor. She battled back from a 1-2 count and eventually made it a 3-2 count before fouling off a pair. The tension was in the air as Johnson showed the bunt, but pulled back and then sent a bomb over left-center field for the grand slam and the walk-off victory.
BOT 7 | CHELSEA JOHNSON WITH THE WALK-OFF GRAND SLAM! Final score 5-2 UNM over UNLV! #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/OGOhAP9wS4
— UNM Softball (@UNMLoboSB) March 17, 2018
The Lobos posted seven hits on the night, two of which came from Townes while Oliver, Johnson, freshman Andrea Howard, junior Kasey Halleen and junior Monica Salas each added one. UNLV also posted seven hits while leaving eight runners stranded on the base paths, UNM left six.
UNLV’s Janine Petmecky earns just her second loss of the season and falls to 10-2. She tallied seven strikeouts and walked four on the night.
The Lobos are set to return to action on Saturday at 12 p.m. and again on Sunday at 12 p.m. to play games two and three of the series. Live stats will be available at Lobos.statbroadcast.com while live video will be available on themw.com/live.