THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - On the first day of the new season the Cal Lutheran softball team dropped both games of their doubleheader against San Diego Christian at Hutton Field. CLU fell 3-0 in the first game followed by a 13-3 defeat in the second contest on Saturday afternoon.
In game one, the Hawks got on the board in the first inning with a two-out single followed by a double to deep left to bring the runner home and take an early 1-0 lead.
A wild pitch in the third and an error in the fifth inning allowed San Diego Christian to take a 3-0 lead in the game and the Regals remained hitless through four innings.
In the bottom of the fifth, Amanda Lewis came in to pinch hit and broke the dry spell with a triple down the right field line, however a strikeout would end the inning and leave Lewis stranded on third.
The Regals managed to get runners into scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings but could not come up with timely hitting to score a run.
Courtney Sooy (0-1) picked up the loss despite pitching a complete game for CLU and allowing just four hits, two earned runs while striking out five and not walking any batters.
Josie Tucker was dominant in the circle for the Hawks allowing just one hit and striking out eight.
In the second game, San Diego Christian got off to an early lead once again putting two runs on the board in the first inning. With runners on second and third, Tucker hit another deep fly ball to left that was dropped, allowing both runners to come around and score.
The Hawks started the third inning with four straight hits and seven straight batters reached base as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead.
The Regals responded in the bottom half of the inning as freshman Jacy Watanabe led of the inning with her first career hit, an infield single down the first baseline. After Ryanna Morua was hit by a pitch, Christina Hunter reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases. Another freshman Olivia Leyva and junior Blake Lewis had back-to-back groundouts to bring two runs home. A. Lewis continued her hot hitting with a single past the shortstop to score Hunter and cut the Hawks lead down to three.
Trailing 6-3 in the fourth inning, the Hawks etched out one more run but blew the game open with a six-run fifth inning taking a commanding 13-3 lead.
Joining Watanabe and Leyva in making their Cal Lutheran debuts were freshman Makenna Pellerin, Mikaela Mayhew, Antonia Rapisardi, Tamara Singh, Abbigael Howard and junior transfer Hannah Brown.
A. Lewis finished a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate after collecting three hits in the second game and one in the first. Watanabe went a combined 2-for-3 on the day with a walk and a run scored.
Cal Lutheran (0-2) will turn right around and play this Monday, Feb. 2 with a doubleheader against Whitworth starting at 10:00 a.m.
Box Score: SDC 3, CLU 0
Box Score: SDC 13, CLU 3 (5)
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