California Baptist University
Covenant College (Ga.)
No Hits, No Problems
5/10/2012 7:15:00 PM | Softball
The Lancers defeated the Covenant College Scots to advance in the winners bracket, facing fifth-seeded Judson Friday at 12 p.m (EDT).
"Emma was dominant again today," said CBU Head Coach Bill Baber. "Once she gets ahead of hitters she's almost impossible to hit and she did that all day today."
Holden struck out 16 batters in the contest and walked just two. Both walks came in the first inning as the senior did not allow a base runner for the final six innings. She has now gone 19 innings without allowing a hit. Holden also runs her career strikeout total to 990, sitting just 10 strikeouts from becoming the first CBU pitcher to reach the 1000 strikeout plateau.
"I've never thrown three straight no-hitters," said Holden. "It's like I've been saying, I guess I saved the best for last. I've felt amazing these last couple weeks and just want to finish this season and my career strong. Lindsay Henry and I have been working together all year and now it's like she just knows what I'm thinking and what I want to throw so that makes it so much easier."
Coming off a more than two week lay-off, the Lancer bats took a few innings to get going.
"I think the break affected us some, but we got going and got the hits when we needed them," said Baber. "Sloan McHann's base hit in the fourth and Amanda Collins' base running were big. After that, getting the home run from Kendall Gorham gave us some good breathing room."
McHann singled through the right side in the fourth and Collins came in to pinch run, promptly taking second base on a pass ball. Collins was advanced on a fly ball from Gorham and then scored on a groundout by Tina Galinato as CBU manufactured the first run of the game.
Henry put CBU up 2-0 with an RBI single in the fifth, before Gorham blasted a two-run shot in the sixth to complete the Lancers' scoring.
It was Gorham's team-leading 16th long ball of the season as she was 2 for 3 on the day. McHann was 2 for 4 in the game.
"Tomorrow is huge now," said Baber. "We've got two games to try and get to Saturday and we know we don't want to have to fight our way out of the loser's bracket. We've got to come out ready to go and focused because it won't be easy."
CBU is now 46-6 on the season.
All games of the tournament can be viewed live by clicking on the link here.
