SOFTBALL DROPS A PAIR OF GAMES AT THE MUSTANG CLASSIC
3/7/2009
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Sacramento State’s offense combined for just 11 hits over two games as the Hornets dropped a pair in the second day of the Mustang Softball Classic Saturday evening at Bob Janssen Field. Sacramento State began the day by falling to host Cal Poly, 4-3, before losing its second game to UC Riverside, 3-1.
One season after finishing 18th in the nation with an average of 5.5 runs per game, Sacramento State’s offensive production has not been nearly as proficient this year. The team has now scored three runs or less in 12 of its last 14 games, including both contests today.
The losses dropped Sacramento State to 1-3 at the three-day, five-game tournament and 4-12 overall this season. The defending Pacific Coast Softball Conference champions and winners of at least 30 games five times in the last six years, Sacramento State’s record matches its worst after 16 games since joining the Div. I ranks in 1990. The Hornets, who split a pair of games yesterday, play their final game of the tournament tomorrow afternoon against UC Riverside at 1 p.m.
In the Hornets’ first game of the day, Cal Poly scored all four of its runs in the fifth inning on the way to a 4-3 victory. Sacramento State got on the board in the first inning after senior Izmena Cabrera singled home Whitney Loomis. The Hornets had an opportunity to score more runs in the inning as the team had runners at second and third with one out after Loomis came home to score. But Mustang starter Helen Pena was able to work her way out of the jam and limit the damage to just one run.
The Hornets tacked on one more in the top of the fifth after Cabrera’s sacrifice fly scored Alyssa Nakken. Again, Sacramento State had opportunities to score more as the team had the bases loaded and no outs, but pushed across just the one run. In the bottom of the fifth, Cal Poly touched Hornet starter Brittani Clifford for four runs, three hits, two walks and a hit batter. The Mustangs scored three of those four runs after two outs had been recorded, including a bases loaded walk to Stephanie Correia and a two-run single by Kendal Hennings. The hit from Hennings proved to be the game winner.
Sacramento State closed to within 4-3 in the top of the seventh after Jamie Schloredt’s single scored Loomis, but Cal Poly reliever Anna Cahn got Cabrera to ground out and end the game with Schloredt still on first. In all, Sacramento State left eight runners on base, and six of those runners were stranded in scoring position.
Pena (4-3) got the win, allowing two runs and six hits over 5.0 innings, while Cahn threw the final 2.0 innings to pick up her first save of the season. Clifford (1-4) picked the loss, allowing four runs and seven hits over 6.0 innings. Clifford walked four more batters and continues to struggle with her control. In 18.0 innings this year, the junior right-hander has now issued 15 walks and has hit three batters.
Six different Hornets had hits in the game, including Cabrera who finished 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
In Sacramento State’s second game of the day, the Hornets accounted for one run and four hits off UC Riverside’s Stephanie Marshall. The Hornets’ lone run in the game came in the sixth inning when freshman Desiree Beltran connected for a solo home run, her second of the season. Sacramento State had just one other runner in scoring position during the entire game, and that came in the second inning when the team had runners at first and second with two outs.
Beltran’s home run tied the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Highlanders put two runs on the board in the seventh with back-to-back RBI-doubles from Krystal Marquez and Jessica Vasser.
Marshall (2-5) picked up the win, allowing one run and four hits while walking two and striking out three over 7.0 innings. Hornet freshman Shelby Voelz (0-3) went the distance in the loss, allowing three runs (two earned) and nine hits while striking out five over 7.0 innings.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Sacramento State’s offense combined for just 11 hits over two games as the Hornets dropped a pair in the second day of the Mustang Softball Classic Saturday evening at Bob Janssen Field. Sacramento State began the day by falling to host Cal Poly, 4-3, before losing its second game to UC Riverside, 3-1.
