The University of Redlands softball team battled it out with
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) foe
Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Saturday and prevailed in both games of
the doubleheader. The Bulldogs needed eight innings to rally for
the 7-4 win in the opener and then took care of the Sagehens by a
12-3 final in the back end of the twin bill.
The first game remained scoreless until the top of the third
inning when senior catcher Nicky Neumann (Fremont, CA) homered with
two outs and two runners on base, giving the Bulldogs a 3-0
advantage.
However, the Sagehens answered in the bottom of the inning with
a three-run knock of their own to even the score.
Pomona-Pitzer mustered the go-ahead run in the bottom of the
fifth by taking advantage of a Redlands error.
Down 3-4, the Maroon and Gray tied it up in the top of the
seventh on a well-timed series of hits. After senior center fielder
Kayla Peterson (San Jose, CA) singled to lead off the inning,
sophomore third baseman Lindsay Henry (Lake Elsinore, CA) moved her
over on a sacrifice hit. The Sagehens intentionally walked Neumann,
who was out on the ensuing fielder's choice to put junior first
baseman Lizett Casillas (Pomona, CA) on base. Freshman left fielder
Sarah Beeman (Corona, CA) stepped up with an RBI-single to bring
home Peterson and make it a tied ball game.
Senior pitcher Olivia Ellis (Colfax, CA) retired three out of
four batters in the bottom half of the inning to send the game into
the eighth.
With two outs, Redlands gained another homerun to save the day,
with Peterson knocking one out while scoring freshman short stop
Kirsten Milliner (Torrance, CA), who singled to center field. Henry
followed suit with a home run to put the Bulldogs up by three.
Ellis fanned all three batters to finish out the game, tallying
an incredible 11 strikeouts on the day. She gained her seventh win
of the season and scattered just three hits with no earned runs.
During the nightcap, Peterson initiated the scoring for Redlands
by hitting a triple to lead off the inning and then crossing home
plate on a wild pitch.
The Bulldogs gained another run in the fifth by taking advantage
of two costly Sagehen errors.
Finally, the Maroon and Gray enjoyed offensive explosions of
five runs each in the sixth and seventh innings. In the first
outburst, Redlands connected on four hits but also benefited from
four wild pitches by Pomona-Pitzer. The seventh inning was
highlighted by sophomore designated player Kirstie Bender's
(Lakewood, CA) two-run homer.
Sophomore hurler Breanna Ruelas (Brawley, CA) held Pomona-Pitzer
scoreless through six innings of work while allowing six hits. She
struck out three in her fifth victory of the season.
Redlands (14-4, 10-0 SCIAC) hosts regional rival Linfield
College (OR) in a non-conference doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
