LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran softball team hit the road for a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) series at Occidental today where the teams needed extra innings in game one before Regals rebounded from a 7-6 loss for a come-from-behind 7-4 victory in the night cap.
For the third time this spring, the squad went 10 innings, but today the Regals finished on the short end, though each team scored in the final frame.
CLU jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first game of the day and led until the fourth when Occidental equalized. The Regals responded with a two-out, three-run rally in the top of the fifth on a combination of hits and Oxy errors. Unfortunately, the Tigers would reciprocate with four runs in the bottom of the frame, on a grand slam, to regain the lead. Cal Lutheran senior Liz Mertel connected for her first career homerun to tie the teams back up in the top of the sixth, a score that would hold until the 10th.
With the international tiebreaker in effect, CLU pushed Amanda Lewis across the plate on an Oxy error to give the visiting team a lead. Again, the Tigers came back with a bases loaded walk and a second run came around on a fielder's choice, to put the game in the books.
Olivia Leyva collected three of the nine Cal Lutheran hits with Hannah Brown also notching a multi-hit game. Six different players scored and four recorded RBIs. Courtney Sooy (10-11) worked all 9.2 innings, scattering nine hits and striking out six.
In the night cap, Blake Lewis (1-0) went to the circle where she threw a complete game in her first start of the season. In 7.0 innings, she allowed nine hits and four runs, all earned, while earning a pair of strike outs.
B. Lewis also aided her own cause with a 2-for-3 showing at the plate with one run scored. Brown, Mertel and Christina Hunter each had two-hit games as well. Brown hit a solo homerun in the top of the fifth and added a second run while Mertel drove in two with one run scored. Hunter also accounted for one of the seven runs in the second game. Overall, Cal Lutheran had 13 hits in the second game.
CLU again scored first, but just as quickly as they took a lead, Occidental reversed that. Trailing 3-2 going into the top of the seventh, Cal Lutheran plated five to complete the comeback. Brown and Hunter collected back-to-back singles and B. Lewis drew a walk to load the bases. A. Lewis drove in Brown to begin the rally. A wild pitch allowed Hunter to scurry home with the go-ahead run and Mertel promptly stroked a two-RBI single to centerfield to put the Regals back on top. Emily Manwell recorded a pinch-hit RBI single to right, scoring Mertel with the final run of the game.
Defensively, CLU played errorless softball and turned a double-play when B. Lewis, Scooter Rapisardi and Hunter teamed up in the bottom of the second inning.
Cal Lutheran (17-17, 13-11 SCIAC) returns to Hutton Field for the final home series of the regular season on Friday, April 24 at 2:00 p.m. when the Regals host Whittier for two. Prior to the game the senior class will be recognized.
Box Score: CLU 7, OXY 4
Box Score: OXY 7, CLU 6 - 10 innings
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