Long Beach State University
20-5
UC Santa Barbara
8-25
Softball Wins 11th Straight To Close Four-Game Sweep Of UC Santa Barbara
4/18/2021 3:24:00 PM | Softball
Justine Briones had three hits including a home run in the win.
Long Beach State (20-5) scored early and often to take a strong position in the game. Naomi Hernandez singled to start the game, and scored on a triple from Alyssa Gonzalez to open the top of the first. Suzy Brookshire then brought home Gonzalez with a base hit to give the Beach a 2-0 lead over UC Santa Barbara (8-25).
Justine Briones got the start behind the plate and opened the second inning with a solo home run, her second of the season, and after a Lilyanna Martinez triple, a sac fly from Hernandez pushed the LBSU lead to 4-0.
Morgan Quinlan started in the circle for Long Beach State, but ran into trouble in the second after a quick first inning with three walks to start the second. Samantha Fowler came on and worked through the inning courtesy of a pair of strikeouts, but the Gauchos also scored two runs in the process to cut the Beach lead in half.
After a quiet third inning, the Beach went back to work on offense in the fourth. Taking advantage of an error and two walks to load the bases, Breezy Wise singled home two runs and a sacrifice fly from Emily Salazar added one more. Another error helped the Beach plate three more in the fifth inning to take a 10-2 lead.
UCSB extended the contest by scoring a run in the bottom of the fifth, but The Beach pushed around a run after a leadoff single from Briones on an RBI single from Hernandez to regain an eight-run lead.
Fowler closed out the sixth inning to finish off the win, pitching five innings in total and allowing just two hits while striking out a career-high seven batters to pick up her first win of the season.
Long Beach State returns home for a three-game series next weekend, hosting Cal Poly for a Saturday doubleheader before a final game on Sunday. Limited seating will be available for families of student-athletes.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Fowler, Samantha (1-1)
L: Snyder, C. (1-2)
Batting:
3B: Gonzalez, Alyssa 1 ; Martinez, Lilyanna 1
HR: Briones, Justine 1
RBI: Hernandez, Naomi 2 ; Olson, Sara 1 ; Gonzalez, Alyssa 1 ; Brookshire, Suzy 1 ; Wise, Breezy 4 ; Salazar, Emily 1 ; Briones, Justine 1
SF: Hernandez, Naomi 1 ; Salazar, Emily 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hernandez, Naomi 2 ; Olson, Sara 2 ; Gonzalez, Alyssa 1 ; Brookshire, Suzy 1 ; Briones, Justine 1 ; Seip, Rylie 1 ; Ruffin, Maddy 1 ; Martinez, Lilyanna 2
SB: Brookshire, Suzy 1
HBP: Ruffin, Maddy 1
Batting:
RBI: McNally, M. 1 ; Fines, M 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Thies, T 1 ; Lewis, L. 1 ; Fines, M 1
HBP: Thomas, K 1
