April 29, 2007
Box Score
Stockton, Calif. - In front of their home crowd for the final time, Pacific's four seniors could not push the Tigers to the win as Long Beach State played the spoiler with a 6-0 win over the Pacific softball team on Sunday, April 29. With the loss the Tigers fell to 33-17 overall and 8-4 in conference play while the 49ers improved to 25-22 overall and 9-6 in the Big West. The Tigers finished the season with an impressive 13-3 record at Bill Simoni Field in 2007.
A day meant to honor the tremendous careers of the senior class turned into a tremendous let down for a Tiger team that came into the day on the verge of claiming first place in the Big West. With Cal Poly struggling above them and Cal State Fullerton taking the week off from conference play, a win by Pacific would move the three teams into a tie for first place with two weeks to play in regular season. However, Long Beach State crashed Pacific's party, taking advantage of sloppy play by the Tigers in their final home game of the 2007 season.
At the plate the Tigers had their chances to score in the contest as they had a runner in scoring position at second in four of the seven innings of play on the day. However, as with a day before, Long Beach State's starter Bridgette Pagano held Pacific's bats in check when she needed to as she finished the weekend without relinquishing a run to the Tigers in two starts.
The Tigers' best chance of the day to score came in the fourth inning as they were able to load the bases with two outs in the inning, but the threat came up empty for Pacific. In the first, the Tigers were able to put their leadoff hitters on as seniors Gina Carbonatto (Lake Stevens, Wash.) and Lizzie Hagen (Anaheim, Calif.) set the Tigers up early, but they became two of 11 runners left on base for the game.
In the circle, sophomore Chelsea Engle (Folsom, Calif.) dropped her second decision of the weekend to Pagano as she gave up six runs, three of them earned, on seven hits in seven innings of work. Engle picked up two hard luck losses against the 49ers over the weekend as she suffered from four defensive errors and a lack of run support in both of her complete game outings which spanned over 16 innings. For the day, Engle's only big mistake came in the top of the seventh inning as she walked the 49ers' leadoff hitter, one of two on the day, before giving up a two out, two run home run to Jessica Beaver which sealed the Tigers' fate.
Sophomore Casey Goldsand (Scottsdale, Ariz.) continued to impress at the plate for the Tigers as she finished the day 2-for-3 while completing the three game series with a .667 batting average as she went 6-for-9. On the season, Goldsand has upped her average to .371 with 52 hits. All four of Pacific's seniors finished the day with one hit a piece as Carbonatto, Hagen and Jennifer Curtier (Lancaster, Calif.) each went 1-for-4 while Vianney Campos (Guadalajara, Mexico) posted a 1-for-2 showing.
The Tigers will be back in action on Saturday, May 5 as they hit the road for a Big West doubleheader against Cal State Northridge. The first game is scheduled for 12:00 pm.
