APU softball comes away winless in PacWest home opener
Azusa Pacific opened PacWest play with a doubleheader on Saturday against California Baptist University at home, coming away winless against the Lancers. The Cougars’ offense struggled on the day, as Azusa Pacific lost game 0-1 in their first game and 1-9 in their second.
Game one of the doubleheader was closely contested throughout. Both starting pitchers, sophomore Kat Ung for APU and Ciara Stapp for California Baptist, completed the game and both teams had runners on base. However, in the fourth inning, a soft-single to right-field courtesy of Halle Rosario brought in the only run of the game.
Stapp made life difficult for the Cougar offense, only allowing one hit in the first game. The Cougars were only gifted baserunners when Stapp hit sophomore Emily Moran and senior Erinn Jaramillo with pitches. Azusa Pacific was able to get runners in scoring position, but the Lancers made sure no damage was done.
“Coming into these two games, we obviously knew that CBU is a tough competitor,” freshman Amanda Woods said, who recorded the Cougars lone hit in game one. “We definitely had a mentality that we needed to go out there and take our swings and we needed to body-up on defense. It was a tough loss. They just scored off of a blooper to the right side, which was frustrating, and we left runners on base, which was also frustrating. I think we had a mentality that we need to play tough through both games, and things didn’t fall our way, but we will get them next time.”
The second game of the day was even less kind to the Cougars than the first. The Lancers’ bats, which were relatively silent in game one, came alive early in game two. In the top of the first inning, CBU was able to bat all the way through their lineup, producing seven runs. After an uncharacteristically poor outing from junior pitcher Racqual Espinoza, junior Megan Mejia stepped in on the mound and minimized the damage, only allowing two more runs in the seventh inning.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the APU offense was able to find some life. Espinoza found space down the left field line, getting on base for the Cougars. Freshman Hannah McClure would come out to pinch-run for Espinoza, and was able to steal both second and third base. Moran’s sacrifice-fly ball to right-field allowed APU to score their only run of the day, bringing McClure home.
“Going into the second game, it really stung to lose that first one and we wanted to come out strong, get runners on and move them around, but that wasn’t really working out for us,” Moran said. “I think people are trying to make adjustments and do what they can, but it’s definitely hard to come out of the first inning when you are down seven runs; but I think, regardless of that, we need to keep making those adjustments and putting balls in play and moving runners.”
Head Coach Carrie Webber noted that her players’ consistency and confidence needed a chance to return after a week off.
“I think that we’ve had a little bit of time off, and I don’t think that breaks in the game of softball are very helpful. We’ve had a lot of breaks, play, then wait a week, and it’s hard to get your timing and consistency down with that,” Webber said. “Then, on top of that, we faced two very good pitchers, it’s going to take some time to get that confidence and consistency working for you and I think that’s just what we struggled with today.”
The Cougars will return home on Friday, March 2 for a non-conference doubleheader against UC San Diego.