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Michelle Pitts
Michelle Pitts
Posted: Apr 04, 2009

Playoff hopes take a hit with two losses to Redlands

Box Score

ORANGE, Calif. -  The Chapman University women's softball team saw its four-game winning streak, six-game home winning streak and possibly its chances at a seventh consecutive NCAA playoff berth bitten by the Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon. Visiting University of Redlands swept a pair of games from the Panthers 13-5 and 3-0 at Hart Park in a battle of West Region and perennial playoff rivals.

Game 1: Redlands 13, Chapman 5
If you arrived late to this one, you missed a lot. Redlands' first five batters reached on base hits and four of them came around to score before the first inning was over. Unfortunately for the Panthers, the Bulldogs didn't stop there, scoring one more in the fourth and then breaking it wide open with a six-run fifth inning to take an 11-0 lead.

Chapman rallied back with four runs of its own in the bottom of the fifth to avoid the run-rule. Senior OF Erin Dudzinski doubled in a run, and then scored on a groundout. Freshman DP Michelle Pitts and junior IF Erin DeRycke also had run-producing singles in the inning, but the deficit was too much to overcome for the Panthers.

Dudzinski, DeRycke and freshman OF C.C. Daly each had two hits to lead the Panthers' offense, which had 11 hits in the game.

Game 2: Redlands 3, Chapman 0
Redlands' junior RHP Olivia Ellis had already thrown four shutout innings in Game 1 against the Panthers. In the second game she returned to toss seven more en route to a two-hit shutout over Chapman (16-16). Ellis finished with seven strikeouts and improved to 14-3 overall.

Pitts singled in the fourth to break-up the no-hitter and Chapman got a one-out single from junior DP SheaLynn Slover in the seventh but that was all the offense the Panthers could muster.

Junior RHP Vanessa Goncalves (4-2) surrendered three runs and was tagged with just her second loss of the season. Redlands (17-8) tallied single runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings thanks to a 4-for-4 performance by junior OF Kayla Peterson, who scored two of the three runs. The Bulldogs pounded 31 hits in two games against Panthers' pitching.

Game 1 Box: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/sball/2008-09/stats/ur-cu1.htm
Game 2 Box: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/sball/2008-09/stats/ur-cu2.htm