RIVERSIDE,
Calif. -- The CSUB softball team
played its fifth and sixth games in three days Monday afternoon at UC
Riverside, and it showed in a 4-2, 10-2 sweep by the Highlanders at Amy S.
Harrison Field.
Senior third baseman Kelli
Bailey (Rodeo/John Swett HS) finished the day 3-for-6, extending her
hitting streak to a personal record 15 games. Unfortunately for CSUB fans, that
proved to be the extent of the Roadrunner highlights.
Game one started well for the Roadrunners, who hit UCR
starter Marissa Alvidrez hard all game. Bailey and Ryane Petersen (Fresno/Fresno State) crushed two-out doubles to
stake CSUB to a 1-0 lead in the first. After a Brittany Keeney homer tied the
game in the second, Petersen laced another RBI double in the third to restore
the Roadrunner lead.
But Riverside
kept scrapping back as Rodriguez had trouble pitching from ahead in the count.
Including full counts, six of the seven Highlander hits came with Rodriguez
ahead in the count. The dagger was Alexis Pickett's two-out, RBI single in the
sixth on a 1-2 pitch.
In game two, UCR starter Amy Lwin brought in the highest ERA
(5.35) the Roadrunners had seen in a starting pitcher all season. But the
Highlander sophomore mostly danced around eight CSUB hits as her offense
provided more than enough support for her to pick up her first win of the
season.
In the CSUB circle, senior Shawna Truan (McArthur/Fall River HS) couldn't duplicate the 4 1/3
innings of no-hit ball with which she opener her start against UCLA the
previous day. She allowed hits to the first four Highlanders she faced and
added three first inning walks as UCR jumped ahead 4-0.
Kristen Archuleta
(Hollister/San Benito HS) scored on a throwing error in the second and
Bailey added an RBI single in the third as CSUB cut that lead in half. But a
pair of Roadrunner errors led to four unearned runs in the UCR fourth to put
the game out of reach. Keeney hit her second homer of the day, a two-run shot,
to end the game in the sixth.
CSUB (10-15) heads to Stanford for five games at the Stanford
Invitational Friday through Sunday in Palo
Alto. The Roadrunners will meet 10th ranked
Stanford on Friday afternoon and Saturday evening in addition to games against
UC Santa Barbara, Pacific and Santa
Clara.
