April 20, 2008

Box Score

Stockton, Calif. - Leading by two heading into the seventh, the Pacific softball team relinquished four runs in the top of the inning, falling to Cal State Fullerton 4-3 on Sunday, April 20. The loss completed the sweep for the visiting Titans as Pacific dropped to 22-28 on the year and 4-8 in conference action while Cal State Fullerton improved to 22-22-1 overall and 6-6 in the Big West.

Cruising for much of the afternoon, junior Chelsea Engle (Folsom, Calif.) saw her lead and her victory slip away in the top of the seventh inning as the Titans used a rally at the bottom of their order to post four runs and snatch victory from the hands of defeat. A leadoff walk to Jenna Wheeler started the inning off on the wrong hand for the Tigers. She was followed by a single into leftfield by Courtney Martinez as the Titans put the tying run on base with no outs in the inning.

After a sacrifice bunt moved the tying run into scoring position, Katie Gollhardt made sure that there would be no doubt that the Titans' rally would succeed as she lifted a 1-0 pitch from Engle over the centerfield wall to give Cal State Fullerton its first lead of the contest.

With the lead, the Titans were not done yet as they worked the bases loaded with two outs on a pair of walks by Engle and a single off of senior Alyce Jorgensen (Los Altos, Calif.) who had entered the game in relief of Engle. With the bases full of Titans, a wild pitch to the backstop brought home the fourth and final run of the inning for Cal State Fullerton, a costly mistake that would prove to be the deciding factor in the contest.

Trailing by two, the Tigers mounted a rally of their own in the bottom half of the inning as Pacific took advantage of a defensive error by the Titans to put their leadoff runner on base in the form of junior Casey Goldsand (Scottsdale, Ariz.). A wild pitch by Christine Hiner (11-11) moved Goldsand to second where she would come around to score the third run of the ballgame on a single down the rightfield line by Jorgensen.

Jorgensen posted all three RBI on the day for the Tigers as she had earlier put Pacific up 2-0 with a two-run homerun over the leftfield fence in the bottom of the third inning. The homerun marked the fifth of the season for the senior as she finished the day 2-for-3 with one walk and one run scored.

Engle (14-15) picked up the loss for the Tigers as she went 6.2 innings, giving up seven hits and three walks. She was charged with all four runs in the contest. Hiner, in relief of Jessice Doucette, picked up her second win of the weekend in 4.2 innings of relief. She gave up three hits and one run, unearned, while walking one and striking out four.

The Tigers will look to get back on track against Cal Poly on Saturday, April 26, at Bill Simoni Field in doubleheader action. The first game of the day will begin at 12:00 pm.