THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - On a hot Thursday afternoon, Cal Lutheran hosted Pacific (Ore.) out of the Northwest Conference for two with the Boxers upending the Regals twice by 5-2 and 12-4 margins with the second ending in after six innings.
On opening day for the Boxers, Pacific jumped out to a quick lead on a three-run homerun off the bat of Rena Natividad that hit the scoreboard in the top of the first inning. The visiting squad would add another pair in the third, aided by a couple of Cal Lutheran errors.
CLU didn't post a crooked number until the bottom of the seventh when Makenna Pellerin scurried home on a wild pitch after pinch running for Blake Lewis who singled. A Hannah Brown single to shortstop brought in Amanda Lewis with the second and final run. A. Lewis was 3-for-3 with nearly half of the seven Cal Lutheran hits in the game.
In game two, Pacific again started hot with a trio of runs on two hits and a CLU error. The Boxers added two in the second and third and tacked on an eighth to extend its lead to 8-0 in the top of the fourth on a solo homerun by Natividad.
A big bottom of the fourth inning saw the Regals bat around, scoring four runs to cut the deficit in half. A leadoff walk was followed by three consecutive hits and another walk with RBIs from Monique Ramirez and Mikaela Mayhew before B. Lewis drove in the final two of the frame.
Pacific responded by plating one in the fifth and three in the sixth to make it an eight-run game. A scoreless bottom of the sixth put the game in the books.
For Cal Lutheran, A. Lewis collected four hits and B. Lewis was 3-for-6. Both Courtney Sooy and Nicole White-Madolora were tagged with her first loss of the spring.
Pacific (2-0) got wins in the circle from Marissa Richard and Allie Sims. Pacing the offense was Natividad was 3-for-4 with five RBIs, four runs and two walks.
Cal Lutheran (4-2) opens Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play on the road Saturday, Feb. 13 at La Verne with first pitch of game one scheduled for noon.
Box Score: PAC 5, CLU 2
Box Score:PAC 12, CLU 4 (6)
CLU Instagram: http://instagram.com/clusports#
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/clusports
CLU Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clusports
