CLAREMONT, Calif. –
For the third consecutive series the Whittier College softball team
came back from a first game defeat to win Game 2 and earn the
double header split. Pomona-Pitzer took Game 1, 8-6, but the
resilient Poets needed only five innings to capture an 11-3 win in
the night cap.
Whittier
(16-13, 7-7 SCIAC) was led offensively by the bat of Mary
Pacheco who collected a pair of hits in each game. She
drove in four runs in Game 2 which includes two on a two-out double
in the top of the third inning.
The Poets
scored four runs in the first inning of the second game and added
four more runs over the next two frames. Pacheco drove in the first
run of the game with a double and a single by Janae
Townsend brought the senior center fielder around to
score.
Molly Yriarte pushed the
final first-inning run across the plate for WC with a
single.
The
Sagehens answered Whittier's half of the first with a run of
its own in the home half of the inning but seven runs over the next
three stanzas for the purple and gold proved to be the
difference.
Kellie Canida followed up
a double and single from Courtney Grana and
Cynthia Loza to drive in the first run of the
third and Pacheco handled the rest with her second double of the
game.
The
three-run fourth inning put the mercy rule into effect for
Whittier.
Jessica Rosnack continued
her strong pitching from the circle as she earned the win behind a
5.0 inning, five strikeout, performance. She allowed three runs on
seven hits.
In the
first game, WC faced a 4-0 hole through the first three innings.
Whittier plated two runs in the fourth and fifth innings but the
Sagehens always had an answer. Pomona scored three runs in the
bottom of the sixth to extend its lead to 8-4 and Pacheco's
two-run blast in WC's final at bat was too little too
late.
WC used
three arms in the first game but it was starting pitcher
Heather Dady who was tagged with the loss. She
went 1.0 innings and gave up two runs on three hits. Erica
Zamora threw 4.0 innings before Rosnack tossed the final
frame.
Pacheco
and Amanda Carrasco each drove in two runs in the
loss while Pacheco and Canida each scored twice.
WC returns
to action with a Friday double header at Occidental. The game is
slated for a 2 and 4 pm start.
