THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - After a rain-shortened non-conference affair on Wednesday, the Cal Lutheran softball team returned to Hutton Field beneath sunny blue skies to host Whittier for two Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) games today. The first was controlled by the Regals during a 7-1 win and the second went to the home team by an 11-6 margin.
Courtney Sooy (5-2) earned both wins today, tossing a total of 10.0 innings, striking out 10 and limiting the Poets to a .125 batting average. Offensively, CLU combined for 18 runs on 22 hits with four extra base hits. Leading the way were Amanda Lewis and Blake Lewis who went 5-for-6 and 2-for-3, respectively, with six total runs. Hannah Brown and Brittany Reed each drove in four runs and tallied a joint five runs for the Regals.
In game one, WC jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first frame on a double from Marialena Ahern that scored leadoff batter Kacey Whitney, but that was as much as the Poets would get as Sooy did not allow another hit, striking out three and facing just two batters over the minimum throughout the remainder of the contest.
B. Lewis laced a single up the middle on the first pitch she saw to start the bottom of the second. Pinch runner Makenna Pellerin came around to cross the plate with the equalizing run on an Antonia Rapisardi line drive back at the pitcher. The Regals would tack on a trio more as Reed stroked a bases clearing double on a full count with two down to give CLU a 4-1 advantage as Sooy, Brown and Rapisardi came around.
CLU extended its lead to 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth on an opposite field line drive from Mikaela Mayhew that scored Brown after a leadoff single, a sacrifice fly, line drive, from Reed that plated Olivia Leyva who blooped a single to left in her first at-bat of the game and an opposite field single from Andrea Brackpool that prompted Mayhew to slide across the plate with the final run of the game.
Overall, Brown was 2-for-3 with two runs and Reed drove in four in the opening contest on Saturday.
The second game was more of the same as Whittier again took an early lead with a pair of runs in the first. CLU responded with back-to-back doubles from B. Lewis and A. Lewis and an RBI single from Brown to knot things up at 2-2. An inning later, Brackpool laced an RBI single to left field, scoring Reed and pushing the Violet and Gold ahead 3-2. As quickly as the lead changed in favor of CLU, it turned again as WC added two in the top of the fourth on a triple and sac fly for a 4-3 advantage.
In the bottom of the fourth, Leyva lined a single to left field, plating the tying run. All knotted up, Sooy took the ball in the top of the fifth and retired the Poets unscathed. CLU broke things open in the bottom of the fifth on three hits and a WC error for five runs and a lead they would not relinquish. A two-RBI double by Brown scored A. Lewis and pinch runner Scarlett Pettine with the ultimate go-ahead runs as the Poets made some late noise with two runs in the top of the seventh.
A. Lewis was 4-for-4 with four runs and two RBIs in the gam while both Brown and B. Lewis finished with two hits and Brown drove in four.
Whittier (4-4, 0-2 SCIAC) opened SCIAC play winless with Samantha Blum (2-3) and Sarah Crawford (0-1) being tagged with the losses. Kacey Whitney was 2-for-3 for the Poets with two of the six runs and Megan Heal also collected a pair of hits, driving in two and scoring one.
Cal Lutheran (7-4, 2-2) has a quick turnaround as the Regals host Linfield for two tomorrow, Sunday, Feb. 21 beginning at noon on Hutton Field.
Box Score: CLU 7, WC 1
Box Score: CLU 11, WC 6
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