Health & Fitness
49er Softball in Tight Race With Two Weeks to Play
Long Beach softball swept the weekend series to remain tied for first with Pacific, whom they will meet next weekend for the Conference Crown.
With a logjam atop the Big West Conference standings, the Long Beach State softball team needed to win the weekend series against the UC Riverside Highlanders to separate itself from both Santa Barbara and Pacific.
The Beach (23-22, 11-4 BWC) remained in a tie for first place as they swept Saturday’s doubleheader 10-4 and 1-0, and Sunday 6-0 to complete the weekend sweep. Pacific, however also won, but Santa Barbra lost to UC Davis, which dropped them to third.
Long Beach faces Pacific next weekend possibly for the conference title.
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It was a tale of two games, as the Beach won Saturday’s games in two different ways.
“It was total polar opposites,” 49er head coach Kelly Sowder said. “We did whatever it takes to win the ball game, which is characteristic of a successful team.”
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Long Beach won the first game, 10-4, but allowed Riverside to strike first to take a 4-0 lead in the first inning behind two Long Beach errors. The Beach then responded with seven runs in the second inning to retake the lead 7-4 behind a bases-clearing three RBI double by Carly Sandavol.
“It was uncharacteristic of us (to give up four runs in the first)”, Sowder said, but
we gained confidence and we started to hit the ball better. Hey we put up seven in the next inning.”
Sandavol led the way for the 49ers, going 3 for 4 with four RBI’s. Nalani St. Jermaine, Bree Stephan and Leilani Tupua-Tautalatasi all had two hits
each as the Beach finished with 10 hits in the game.
Taylor Perry (6-1) pitched the complete game, giving up four runs on eight hits, nine strikeouts and two walks.
One swing of Hannah De Getano’s bat, a solo homerun in the fifth inning, was all
the 49ers needed as Long Beach won the second game 1-0 in a pitching duel
between Riverside’s Taylor Alverez and Erin Jones-Wesley.
Jones-Wesley (17-12), who had to carry most of the pitching burden when Perry was unavailable during an illness, had one of her best performance of the year in
Sowder’s point of view.
“Erin is a competitor no matter what,” she said. “She was on today. She was more fresh and had enough to get ahead of the batters today. She had easier 1-2-3 innings.”
Jones-Wesley finished with nine strike outs and two hits.
Long Beach travels to conference rivals Cal State Fullerton for a weekend series
this weekend. They will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting a 2:30 pm, and then Sunday starting a 1pm.