Beach Splits Doubleheader With Hawai’i To Close First Big West Series

Saturday, March 30

Manoa, Hawaii

5 p.m.

Long Beach State University

14-17, 1-1

Hawai'i

20-10, 1-1

Long Beach State

Hawai'i

Photo by: John Fajardo

Beach Splits Doubleheader With Hawai’i To Close First Big West Series

3/30/2019 9:32:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score - Game 1 Box Score - Game 2

Kellie White struck out five in a complete game victory in the opener.

By: Roger Kirk, Assistant Athletics Director, Athletic Communications

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Long Beach State struck first and held on for a 5-2 win in game one of Saturday's doubleheader, but outside of a Tierra Falo home run game two belonged to the Rainbow Wahine as the Beach and Hawai'i split the two games to finish off the first series of Big West play for both teams.

                Long Beach State (14-18, 1-2 Big West) struck early in the opening game. Nichole Fry opened the game with a leadoff double, and after taking third on a wild pitch, easily scored on an RBI single from Naomi Hernandez as the Beach took a 1-0 lead over Hawai'i (21-10, 2-1 Big West).

                The score evened in the bottom of the first, as Kellie White gave up a pair of walks to start the inning, and a sacrifice bunt and fly brought home a run for the home team to tie the score.

                The Beach took the lead with a big inning in the fifth. Fry was again the spark, singling to start the inning and then an error put two on. Jamie Wren was hit to load the bases, and Maddy Ruffin followed with a double down the line, scoring two. Wren then came home to score on a sacrifice fly from Sydney McCollum, making the score 4-1 in favor of Long Beach State through five.

Maddy Ruffin puts the Beach in the lead with this double! @LBSUSoftball up 3-1 and still working in the fifth! #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/CIWYtQGCkb
— LBSU Athletics (@LBSUAthletics) March 31, 2019

Another insurance run came in the seventh as Maddy Ruffin drew a leadoff walk and scored after singles from Lauren Lombardi and McCollum. The Rainbow Wahine answered back with a run in the bottom of the seventh, but White finished off the complete game with her fifth strikeout in a 5-2 victory.

Strikeout number 5 for Kellie White in the complete game ends it, 5-2! Game ?? coming up next! #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/bI407Cwa7Y
— LBSU Softball (@LBSUSoftball) March 31, 2019

               Game two had a promising start, as Wren doubled in the second inning and Tierra Falo smashed a home run to left field, her first of the season to put the Beach on top 2-0.

                Hawai'i bounced right back as White, who also started game two, finally ran out of gas. Giving up a leadoff single, White picked up the first out of the inning, but the Rainbow Wahine followed with a walk, an RBI double and a three-run homer from Madison Veldman to take a 4-2 lead.

                Turning to Ashley Coleman, Long Beach State nearly escaped the inning, but an error brought home two more as Hawai'i would end up scoring seven in the frame to take a 7-2 lead.

                Hawai'i added three more runs in the bottom of the third, again capitalizing on a Long Beach State error to turn one run into three on the back of three hits to make the score 10-2.

                The Beach extended the game in the fifth inning – McCollum and Lombardi hit a pair of singles in front of Fry, who hit her second double of the game into left center to cut the lead back down to seven. UH was still able to end the game early, as Callie Heen hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth in the first hit allowed from Samantha Fowler, who struck out five in three innings of relief.


                Long Beach State remains on the road next weekend as Big West play continues. The Beach will play a three-game series at UC Riverside starting with a doubleheader Saturday, April 6 at 1 p.m.