THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - After locking up their first win of 2013 on Monday, the Cal Lutheran softball team hosted No. 22 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) doubleheader. The Regals gave the Athenas a run for their money early in the first game before falling 7-2 and 8-0 at Hutton Field today.
The drama started early on the diamond. In the top of the first in the opening game, with runners on second and third, CLU starting pitcher Katelyn Downing fielded a comebacker, looked the runner at third back and threw out the batter for the second out of the frame. A walk loaded the bases before the junior hurler induced a fly ball to centerfielder Kayla Sakamoto to end the Athenas threat.
Sakamoto then started the offense for the Regals with a bunt single. What looked like a bloop single off the bat of Shannon Tinsley was nabbed in the air by CMS second baseman Harmony Palmer who doubled off Sakamoto to end the first inning.
Downing got a 1-2-3 second on a line drive at third baseman Liz Mertel followed by a pair of called strike outs.
Brittany Labbe singled past a diving shortstop in her first at-bat. She moved up to second on a ground ball to third off the bat of Kelly Lockwood and came around to score the first run of the game on a base knock by Mertel in the second.
Six consecutive Athenas batters were retired between the first and third before Katie Savard collected the first CMS hit of the day with two down. Clean-up batter Marie Bradvica followed with a double to centerfield, but the inning ended on a ground ball to Ryanna Morua at second.
The bottom of the third and top of the fourth saw just six batters total.
Cal Lutheran took advantage of CMS errors in the bottom of the fourth inning, doubling their run total. Tinsley drew a lead-off walk. Morua stepped into the box after starting the game as the flex player and layed down a bunt, reaching on the fielder's choice, as Tinsley was safe at second. An error at third allowed Tinsley to come around to score the second run of the game for the Regals.
The Athenas bats woke up in the fifth with a single, double and single before Bradvica layed down a perfect suicide squeeze, scoring Janelle Shiozaki with the tying run. Mikayla O'Neil lifted a sacrifice fly to Sakamoto to give CMS their first lead of the day.
A scoreless bottom of the fifth brought CMS back up where their bats continued to produce. Three consecutive hits were capped with a triple by Shiozaki, despite a great relay from Debben Hoffer to Lockwood to Mertel, who nearly tagged the CMS right fielder out at third. After a walk to the number three batter, Sakamoto and Downing switched positions on the field as the senior leftie took over in the circle with two outs. With the bases loaded Sakamoto forced a weak fly ball, but an error cleared the bags and gave CMS a 7-2 advantage. Sakamoto got a ground ball to Morua to end the frame.
Unfortunately the Regals were unable to add any more runs to their total.
CMS starting pitcher Hayley Schultz (3-1) earned the victory while Downing (1-2) was tagged with the loss. Labbe had two of the four CLU hits going 2-for-3 with a run scored. Four CMS batters had multi-hit games.
In game two, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps batted around in the second and never looked back. The Athenas put up a crooked number with three runs on three hits, a sacrifice fly, a walk and a hit batter.
Cal Lutheran came back to the diamond and flashed the leather in the third. Back-to-back hits did not faze the Regals who got the first out of the inning on a fielder's choice by Christina Hunter who flipped the ball perfectly to Tinsley to make a tag at the plate on a bunt. The inning ended on a 5-3 double play on a hard hit ball to Mertel who tagged the bag and fired across the field to Hunter to spark the crowd.
It was all Athenas, though. A four-run fourth frame included a no-doubt-about it three-run homerun to dead center field by Bradvica, which pushed the CMS lead to 7-0, forcing starting pitcher Shonna Christianson from the circle.
CLU turned three double-plays in the second game with Lockwood, Morua and Hunter combining for two, one in the fourth and one in the fifth. Sakamoto made a great stop on a comebacker, cutting down the lead runner for the first out of the sixth after the innings started with her dodging a hard hit ball up the middle as the Regals continued to play solid defense in the second contest of the afternoon.
Only four CLU players reached base during the second game with Lockwood singling twice and walking while Christianson also singled and Tinsley and Taylor Beacham each drew a walk in the first and seventh innings, respectively.
CMS connected for 23 total hits on the day. In game two, five players had multi-hit games for the Athenas.
Shannon O'Neil (1-1) earned her first victory of the spring with a complete game while Christianson (0-4) threw 3.1 innings in the loss.
Cal Lutheran (1-9, 1-1-7 SCIAC) returns to the diamond on Saturday, March 2 when the Regals travel to Redlands for a pair beginning at noon.
Game 1: CMS 7, CLU 2
Game 2: CMS 7, CLU 0
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