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SOFTBALL LOSES TO #11 WASHINGTON, 7-4, IN RAIN SHORTENED GAME
2/18/2011
 SAN DIEGO -- Sacramento State cut into a 7-0 deficit with one run in the fourth and three more in the fifth, but the game was called after five innings because of rain Friday afternoon against 11th-ranked Washington at the USD Softball Complex. Despite the 7-4 score, the game is official because it went the necessary five innings.
The contest was the third of the San Diego Classic for Sacramento State as the team is 1-2 thus far at the four-day, five-game tournament. The Hornets lost to 22nd-ranked San Diego State yesterday, 4-2, before knocking off UC Santa Barbara earlier today by a 6-5 score.
Washington (6-0) remained perfect on the young season after pouncing on Sacramento State starter Jacquelyn Serrano to the tune of six runs in the first inning. During that frame, the Huskies sent 11 batters to the plate while taking advantage of four hits, three walks and a hit-batter. A two-run double by Jenn Salling highlighted the scoring.
Shelby Voelz replaced Serrano to begin the second inning, and kept the Hornets in the game, allowing just one unearned run and two hits over three innings. Washington’s unearned run came in the third inning and gave the Huskies a commanding 7-0 lead.
Sacramento State (1-4) had little trouble accumulating hits as the team finished with nine over five innings, but stranded nine runners on base which included the bases loaded in both the fourth and fifth innings.
The Hornets scored their first run in the fourth inning after Paige Martin’s RBI-single drove home pinch runner Lauren Blair. Sacramento State chopped into the lead even more with a three-run fifth inning. An Emily McCormick two-run double and an RBI-single from Shannon Kaufman got the Hornets within striking distance and loaded the bases with two outs. Washington brought in Kaitlin Ingelsby to face the Hornets’ hottest hitter (Alyssa Nakken) with two outs and the score, 7-4. Nakken, who had reached base safely in 12 of her 19 plate appearances this season prior to the at-bat, grounded out to the end the game.
Six different Sacramento State players had hits, including McCormick who was 3-for-3 with a run and two RBIs. Nakken went 2-for-4 and is now batting .467 (7-for-15) with a team-high .600 on-base percentage.
Jenna Clifton (1-0) got the win for Washington, allowing seven hits and one run over four innings. Ingelsby got her first save of the year after retiring Nakken. Serrano (0-2) took the loss as she lasted just one inning.
Weather permitting, the Hornets will play tomorrow against Northwestern at 9 a.m., and conclude the tournament on Sunday against eighth-ranked Missouri at 11:30 a.m.
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