Long Beach State University
15-5, 11-1
UC San Diego
7-11, 4-5
Softball Completes Four-Game Sweep Of UCSD With Two More Wins Sunday
4/11/2021 5:05:00 PM | Softball
Long Beach State rallied for a 7-6 walkoff win before routing the Tritons 14-4 in five innings.
The opening game was a wild back-and-forth affair as Long Beach State (16-5, 11-1 Big West) welcomed in families for the first time since last March to the LBSU Softball Complex. The Beach struck first in the opening frame, as Naomi Hernandez opened the bottom of the first with a single. Suzy Brookshire then walked, and RBI hits from Breezy Wise and Emily Salazar gave the Beach a 2-0 lead.
After two shutouts Saturday, UC San Diego (7-12, 4-5 Big West) was able to break through against LBSU pitching for the first time. With a runner on, a double from Keila Bosinger brought home one run and then a single from Sherriah Harrington tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the third.
Long Beach State quickly responded in the bottom half through the heart of the order as Alyssa Gonzalez and Brookshire both reached in front of Wise, who hit her second double of the game to bring home both runners and give the Beach a 4-2 lead.
Haddad ran into more trouble in the fifth inning however, with the big hit coming as a two-run single from Danica Kazakoff as the Tritons for tied the game and then took a 6-4 lead.
The Beach would work their way back into the game as Kellie White worked out of the inning in relief, and then shut down six in order in the sixth and seventh innings to allow the LBSU offense to work. After a one-out walk to Naomi Hernandez in the sixth, the Beach loaded the bases and brought home the tying run on a sacrifice fly from Brookshire.
Working the infield in the seventh, the Beach put two runners on with a pair of infield singles and then pushed them over into scoring position. That paid off as Naomi Hernandez beat out a single to third base to bring home the winning run for the walkoff victory.
Walk it off! Naomi Hernandez scores Machado and the Beach wins a wild one 7-6 to sweep the conference series with the Tritons. Game two (non-conference) coming up next! #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/O5LTCyVDdp
— LBSU Softball (@LBSUSoftball) April 11, 2021
That gave the Beach a sweep of the conference games, but the teams had previously agreed to play a fourth non-conference game. The Tritons got on the board first for the first time in the series, as Bosinger singled to start the game and then scoring on an RBI single from Harrington.
Long Beach State answered with four runs in the bottom half, with Brookshire hitting a two-run home run as the catalyst. UCSD capitalized on a Long Beach State error to push three more across in the second inning, but the LBSU offense was just getting going.
Gonzo oppo! It's an offensive show today in game two as the three-run bomb makes it 7-4! #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/pATh752xXg
— LBSU Softball (@LBSUSoftball) April 11, 2021
A three-run home run from Gonzalez made the score 7-4 after two innings, and then the Beach batted around in the third inning. Wise hit her second triple of the game to drive home three runs in the inning, as Long Beach State scored a season-high seven runs in the inning to take a 14-4 lead which held for the run-rule victory in five innings.
Morgan Quinlan came on in relief of Kellie White, collecting the win with four strikeouts in two innings, while Samantha Fowler closed out the game for LBSU.
Long Beach State will again play a four-game series next week, hitting the road to play four games against UC Santa Barbara. The teams will play an opener on Friday before a doubleheader on Saturday and a final non-conference contest on Sunday.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: White, Kellie (8-3)
L: Wampler, Robyn (4-6)
Batting:
2B: Bosinger, Keila 1
RBI: Bosinger, Keila 1 ; Harrington, Sherriah 1 ; Aguirre, Bobbi 1 ; Lavrov, Isabel 1 ; Kazakoff, Danica 2
SH: Real, Sophia 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bosinger, Keila 2 ; Harrington, Sherriah 1 ; Tirado, Vanessa 1 ; Renner, Kelley 2
SB: Kazakoff, Danica 1
HBP: Harrington, Sherriah 1 ; Pederson, Deena 1
Batting:
2B: Wise, Breezy 2
RBI: Hernandez, Naomi 1 ; Brookshire, Suzy 2 ; Wise, Breezy 2 ; Salazar, Emily 1
SH: Olson, Sara 1 ; Machado, Ashley 1
SF: Brookshire, Suzy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hernandez, Naomi 2 ; Martinez, Lilyanna 1 ; Brookshire, Suzy 2 ; Salazar, Emily 1 ; Machado, Ashley 1
HBP: Gonzalez, Alyssa 1 ; Brookshire, Suzy 1
