Pitchers’ Duel in San Diego

Tuesday, April 23

San Diego

6:00 PM

California Baptist University

21-27

San Diego State

20-22

California Baptist

San Diego State

Photo by: Danielle Lutjens

Pitchers’ Duel in San Diego

4/23/2019 7:37:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Mike Minyard, Assoc. AD for External Relations

SAN DIEGO – Impressive pitching performances by California Baptist's Giana Lopez and San Diego State's Marissa Moreno limited the offenses in a 2-1 Aztec victory at the SDSU Softball Stadium on Tuesday night.

The Aztecs jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. SDSU's Katie Byrd tripled down the right field line and later scored on a throwing error. Molly Sturdivant hit a solo shot home run in the following at-bat.

Lopez settled down after that, allowing just two hits the rest of the game as she retired 15 of the next 17 SDSU batters. Lopez allowed two runs on four hits in six innings of work. It was her eighth complete game effort of the season.

SDSU's Moreno entered the game as the top Aztec pitcher with eight wins, including three complete game shutouts this season. Moreno had a perfect game through 3.2 innings until the Lancers broke it up in the fourth inning.

With two outs in the fourth, CBU's Caitlyn Lloyd doubled down the left field line for the first Lancer base runner of the evening. Mackenzie Budinger singled in the next at-bat and Lloyd advanced to third. Anise Avalos was able to drive home Lloyd with the third consecutive two-out hit of the inning to make it 2-1.

Lancers break through the second time around in the line-up. Three straight hits in the fourth inning get CBU on the board. Caitlyn Lloyd had a two-out double to get things started and Anise Avalos brought her home!#LanceUp pic.twitter.com/Miw6x8Ppoq
— CBU Softball (@CBUSoftball) April 24, 2019

The Lancers, looking to rally in the top of the seventh, had the tying run on base after a leadoff single by Avalos. With Alley Johnson at the plate, Avalos was picked off at first base by the SDSU catcher Sturdivant. Johnson later flied out to left center for the second out of the inning. That brought up the reigning Western Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week Molly Kolander, who went 7-10 in the Lancer's first-ever WAC sweep of Utah Valley over the past weekend. Kolander quickly got down 0-2 in the count and struck out swinging to end the game.

Moreno allowed five hits and one run while striking out three over seven innings to pick up the complete game victory.

CBU moves to 21-27 overall while SDSU is now 20-22.

The Lancers will remain on the road to take on UNLV with a doubleheader on Friday at 3 p.m. and the series finale on Saturday at noon. All three games will be streamed and available through the UNLV website and YouTube channel.