LA VERNE, Calif. - Less than two weeks after being swept at home by La Verne, the Cal Lutheran softball team marched onto Campus West Softball Field and swept the Leopards, winning 4-3 in ten innings followed by a 7-4 win on Friday afternoon.
Before starting pitcher Courtney Sooy had a chance to take the circle, she gave herself some run support with a leadoff homerun in the top of the first inning.
The Leopards responded with five hits and two runs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-1 lead.
Sooy continued her hot hitting at the plate with a double in the third inning, and was brought around to score after an RBI infield single from Olivia Leyva.
The score remained tied 2-2 all the way until the ninth inning when Leyva led off with a double to right center. Blake Lewis followed with a deep single to the right center wall to bring home Leyva and break the tie.
After two quick outs in the bottom of the ninth, La Verne third basemen Mackenzie Dutton hit a game-tying homerun to left center. Sooy regrouped to get the next batter to groundout to end the inning.
In the tenth inning, with a runner placed on second base per extra inning rules, Taylor Beacham came up to the plate and sacrificed Ryanna Morua over to third base. Antonia Rapisardi grounded out for the second out of the inning, and Sooy drew a walk to keep the inning alive. Christina Hunter came up with a clutch go-ahead RBI single to left field to score Morua and give CLU a 4-3 lead.
In the bottom of the tenth, Sooy retired the side in order and struck out the final batter of the game. Sooy (4-6) won her third straight game after going the distance and allowing just three earned runs and 10 hits while striking out four. At the plate she finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored to lead the Regals. Leyva also finished with three hits while Lewis and Hunter added the other key hits in the game.
In the second game, the Regals capitalized on five errors from La Verne and came up with big hits to win 7-4 and secure the sweep.
The scoring started in the top of the third inning when the Leopards committed two throwing errors and walked Abbigael Howard with the bases loaded to give the Regals a 2-0 lead.
La Verne would tie the game up in the bottom of the third and took a 3-2 lead in the fourth, but CLU outscored the Leopards 5-1 over the last three innings.
The Regals got RBI singles from Howard and Amanda Lewis in the fifth and two more La Verne errors gifted two runs to CLU in the sixth. To cap off the scoring in the game, Leyva doubled down the right field line to bring in Makenna Pellerin.
Shonna Christianson (2-3) picked up the win in the circle after pitching a complete game allowing four runs and striking out two.
Leyva led CLU at the plate once again and finished a combined 5-for-10 with three RBIs on the day. A. Lewis went 2-for-4 with an RBI in the second game and Hunter went 1-for-2 and drew three walks and scored three times.
Cal Lutheran (6-9, 6-3 SCIAC) will return home to Hutton Field tomorrow for a doubleheader with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps set to begin at 12:00 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 4, LV 3 (10)
Box Score: CLU 7, LV 4
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