After winning two games on Friday, the Leopards of the
University of La Verne faced off against the University of Redlands
in the championship game of the 2008 Southern California
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Postseason Tournament.
After rallying back from the losers' bracket with a 6-5
victory over Pomona-Pitzer, the Bulldogs faced the daunting
challenge of taking two from La Verne in the ensuing championship.
Redlands prevailed in the first of the double elimination series,
3-0, but La Verne hung on for the 5-4 win in the final game.
Against Pomona-Pitzer, Redlands faced a must-win situation to stay
alive in the tournament. With persistence and a total-team effort,
the Bulldogs came back twice and then scored the winning run in the
top of the seventh inning. Short stop Melanie Hamlin (Redlands, CA)
nearly hit for the cycle on 3-for-4 batting with three RBI and two
runs scores. She posted an infield homerun, a triple and a double
in the victory. Pomona looked to third baseman Christine Calderon
(Hemet, CA) to lead the Sagehens with three RBI on a double.
The Bulldogs moved on to face La Verne in the first championship
game. Redlands scored runs in three different innings while pitcher
Katie Brnca (Riverside, CA) threw seven innings of shut-out ball.
She struck out four while scattering four hits. Catcher Nicky
Neumann (Fremont, CA), second baseman Dory Baga (Aiea, HI), and
right fielder Remy Kawaguchi (Sammamish, WA) posted RBI for the
Bulldogs.
In the double elimination format, the two teams matched up again
for the championship. Due to two Bulldog errors, the Leopards
quickly gained two runs in the first inning and followed that up
with two more in the third. After Redlands responded with one run
in the bottom of the third, La Verne added a security run in the
fifth inning to go up 5-1. But the Bulldogs kept fighting and
posted three runs in the bottom of the inning to pull within one. A
tough call at the plate went in favor of the Leopards and
ultimately resulted in the 5-4 victory for La Verne. Left fielder
Kari Granger provided two RBI for La Verne, while Kawaguchi led the
Bulldogs with two RBI on two hits.
The University of La Verne earns the conference's automatic
bid to the NCAA Championships, while the Bulldogs await the
postseason announcement on Monday.
