(Photo Courtesy of Pacific Athletics)
Davis, Calif. – The Pacific Softball team notched a victory in its season opener at UC Davis, 8-5, at La Rue Field on Tuesday, Feb. 11. Pacific improved to 1-0 on the year with the victory while the Aggies fell to 1-5 with the loss.
Pacific struck first against the Aggies’ Leah Munden, as freshman Cassidy Gustafson opened the top of the second inning with a single to center field. Sophomore Nicole Zapotoczny advanced Gustafson with a single to center of her own before freshman Bailey O’Mara reached on a bunt single to load the bases.
From there, the Tigers began a station-to-station march around the bases as sophomore Melanie Habib reprised her role as a clutch performer in 2013, singling to score Gustafson and give the Tigers’ their first run of the year. Sophomore Sara Anderson kept the line moving with a bloop RBI single to right field and senior Gabby Goyette added an RBI single of her own. With the score 3-0 and with no outs, UC Davis went to the bullpen, bringing in Andrea Reynolds in relief of Munden.
Reynolds got senior Megan Foglesong to strikeout looking with the bases loaded for the first out of the inning before senior Taylor Petty singled to make it 4-0. Junior Alex Steinmehl walked with the bases loaded for a 5-0 Pacific advantage before Gustafson came through with her second hit of the inning to widen the advantage to 6-0. Zapotoczny fouled out to right, but it proved to be a productive out as Petty scored on the sacrifice fly to make it a seven-run Pacific advantage.
Up big, the Tigers were able to weather an Aggie rally in the bottom half of the inning as UC Davis mounted an attack of their own. With one out, Amy Nunez walked and Kimberly Pena singled to advance Nunez to second. Krista Bava walked to load the bases before Jasmine Lee singled to center to drive in Nunez. Chandler Wagner singled home Pena and Bava to make it a 7-3 game. The Tigers would go to their own pen after the three runs crossed the plate as sophomore Carly Mortensen entered to attempt to quell the storm. After a fourth run crossed the plate, Mortensen was able to put down the Aggie attack without further damage, stranding the bases loaded to get her team back to the plate.
With their lead cut to three, Pacific went back to work as Foglesong made up for the strikeout in the second with a two-out triple to center in the third that set up an eighth and final Tiger score. Just 60 feet away, Foglesong was able to put pressure on the Aggies once again, scoring on a wild pitch to give Pacific the four-run lead at 8-4.
After a wild second inning and a score for the Tigers’ in the third, the game became a pitcher’s duel between Mortensen and Reynolds over the final five innings of play with neither giving in. The Aggies would score once more in the fifth as a leadoff double turned into a run on a sacrifice play to right. On the play, right fielder Taylor Petty made a spectacular falling catch on a knuckling ball at the wall, but Lauryn Saunders read the play perfectly and scored while tagging up from second.
Overall, the Tigers picked up a stellar performance from Mortensen (1-0) out of the pen as the sophomore went 5.1 innings in relief while giving up just two hits and one run. Offensively, Pacific tallied 13 hits with 8-of-9 starters recording at least one hit. Habib led the way with three hits in four trips to the plate while Goyette, Petty and Gustafson each posted two.
The Aggies’ loss went to Leah Munden (0-3) who lasted just 1.0 innings while giving up seven hits and six runs. In relief, Reynolds threw 6.0 innings and gave up six hits, but just two runs while striking out four.
The Tigers take the field again on Friday, Feb. 14 at the Stanford Nike Invitational when they play former Big West foe Cal Poly at 10:00 am to start the tournament.
