RIVERSIDE - After opening the CBU Classic with a two-game sweep on Friday, the California Baptist University softball team was back for another doubleheader at Funk Stadium against Weber State and Utah State on Saturday. The Lancers would split Saturday's action, falling 2-0 to Weber State in game one before bouncing back and walking off Utah State in extras in game two.
GAME ONE: CBU 0 - WEBER ST 2
The Lancers started the game with hits in the first two innings but would only find two more throughout the game courtesy of 86 pitches from the Wildcat starter. Priscilla Estrada, Merissa Borkowski, Ashlee Annett, and pinch hitter Matti Severns knocked one of those hits, all being stranded at first. Morgan McConnell gave Head Coach Mike Smith another complete game effort, striking out four and allowing two earned in her seven innings.
GAME TWO: CBU 7 - UTAH ST 6 (9)
Saturday's nightcap was a wild ride as at least one of the teams would score in each inning except the first. CBU struck first in the second, but the Aggies would catch and pass them with three runs spread between the third and fourth innings. Two more Lancer runs crossed the plate in the fifth, matched by Utah State in the sixth.
Despite a two-run deficit in the final inning of regulation, the Lancers were boosted by an RBI pinch hit from Maya Avila and a game-tying sacrifice fly from Borkowsi to send the contest into extra innings.
With a runner starting on second in the extra innings, USU struck first, plating their free runner with back-to-back singles in the eighth. The Aggies loaded the bases with a walk and hit into a bases-loaded fielder's choice. After that, McConnell came into the game in relief and struck out the last two Aggies to escape the jam.
A sac bunt and single from Estrada and Sydney Soto, scoring Severns, tied the game again at 6-6. The Aggie's efforts were wasted at the top of the ninth as a sacrifice bunt yielded nothing more than a threat from the third base.
The Lancers mirrored the Aggies, opening the bottom half of the inning with a sac bunt to move pinch runner Maya Martinez just 60 feet from the win. Freshman Kate Penberthy would be intentionally walked for the second time in the game, followed by another intentional base on balls for Borkowski. The Aggie pitcher managed a strikeout before bringing the true freshman Severns up to the plate for a shot at glory. The second pitch she saw was the one as Severns slapped it through the left side, scoring Martinez easily to win the game. McConnell would pick up her third win of the season after two innings of late work, and Severns recorded her first walk-off win as a Lancer.
The Lancers will close out the CBU Classic on Sunday afternoon with one more tussle against CSU Bakersfield, scheduled for 12:30 p.m.
