THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - With a pair of Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) victories over Occidental today at Hutton Field, the Cal Lutheran softball team inched closer to .500 and improved to 9-4 in league play with a 9-1 five inning victory to start the day before winning 5-1 in the second.
On another productive afternoon on the diamond, Blake Lewis was 5-for-6 with four extra base hits, including three doubles and a triple, as she drove in five, scored twice and tallied 10 total bases on an afternoon that she produced a 1.667 slugging percentage. Two other solid offensive outings today came from freshmen Makenna Pellerin and Scooter Rapisardi who each went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs, respectively. Overall, CLU hit at a .396 clip with 19 hits, 14 runs and 12 runs drive in on the day. In the circle, Courtney Sooy and Shonna Christianson each went the distance. Sooy improved to 6-7, striking out seven without allowing an earned run in a one-hitter while limiting the Black and Orange to a .063 team batting average and Christianson sat down four by way of the K as she tossed 7.0 innings, surrendering just one run.
After the first batter of the game reached, Sooystruck out the next two batters and forced a pop-up to end the inning. She then came up to the plate and earned a single on a swinging bunt and moved up to second on a Christina Hunter sacrifice. Back-to-back RBI doubles from Olivia Leyva, down the right field line, and Blake Lewis, to right field, gave CLU an early 2-0 advantage with the eventual winning run.
An inning later, CLU tacked on three more by way of a bases clearing double that plated Rapisardi, Hunter and Leyva. CLU would put up another run in the third when Rapisardi connected for her second single of the game, sending Liz Mertel across the plate for a 6-0 lead.
In an inning when the Tigers put up their first crooked number of the day, they were denied an opportunity to add to that tally on a near shoestring catch from Leyva at the left field line to end the top of the fourth inning.
The freshman outfielder then led off the bottom of the frame, reaching on an error, before scoring on the third RBI extra base hit of the game from B. Lewis who tripled. Amanda Lewis followed suit with an RBI double of her own, which went off the bottom of the left field wall, and the CLU lead grew to 8-1.
Sooy shut down the Tigers in the top of the fifth and Cal Lutheran came back on offense to post the run that ended the game in five innings when pinch runner Mikaela Mayhew crossed the plate on a failed pickoff attempt at first base.
In the second game, Occidental notched five hits all over the filed in the first three innings and struck first with a run in the third frame, but when Christiansonpicked up the first CLU hit of the afternoon to load the bases, after a hit batter and a walk, and Hunter followed suit with a two-RBI single to left in the bottom of the third, the tides turned and the Regale seized control of the momentum of play.
With her first lead of the game, Christianson went on to face just two batters over the minimum over the remainder of the game. She reeled back and notched two strikeouts with a ground ball to shortstop as the final out of the fourth inning after four Tigers stepped up to the plate. A scoreless fifth, in which she again faced just four batters, was followed by a five-pitch sixth for the Cal Lutheran squad.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Regals strung together four hits and plated another pair as both B. Lewis and A. Lewis singled and scored, to take a more comfortable 5-1 lead.
Needing just three outs, Christianson did just that, forcing three ground balls to the left side of the infield with Mertel and Hunter connecting for the first and Rapisardi notching the final two of the game.
Occidental (3-9, 2-6 SCIAC) collected eight total hits with Dallas Boyce connecting for three.
Cal Lutheran (9-10, 9-4) returns to the diamond in a week when the Regals travel to Redlands for a pair with the Bulldogs on Saturday, March 14 with first pitch set to fly at 12:00 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 5, OXY 1
Box Score: CLU 9, OXY 1 (5)
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/clusports
Follow Taylor: https://twitter.com/CLUSoftball
CLU Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clusports
CLU Instagram: http://instagram.com/clusports#
