Softball walks off twice in doubleheader sweep

ORANGE, Calif. – Two game-winning hits and pair of stellar pitching performances led the Chapman University softball team to a doubleheader sweep of visiting Cal Lutheran, 3-2 and 2-1. The Panthers (5-3, 3-1 SCIAC) did not allow an earned run in either game and used two late comebacks to secure the sweep.

Game 1 – W, 3-2 (8 inns.)

Junior Kristen Weiser delivered the game-winning single to give the Panthers a 3-2 win in extra innings. The extra-inning win was the second for the Panthers in their last four games.

Weiser went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles. Weiser's game-winner dropped in front of the right fielder as freshman Samantha Tong sprinted home from second, scoring easily. Tong sparked the two-out rally with a screaming liner into left. She was 3-for-4 in the game.

Sophomore Samantha Whalen was perfect in the circle in her first trip through the lineup. An error and a triple in the fourth ended her no-hit bid and broke the scoreless tie. A sacrifice fly in the fourth brought home Cal Lu's second run. Whalen went back to dominating, shutting down the Regals over the next three innings and the extra frame.

Whalen allowed just two unearned runs on four hits and struck out five. She did not issue a walk in her eight innings of work.

Freshman Kyra Gallego got the Panthers on the board in the fifth with a sacrifice fly. Classmate Vanessa Gilles smacked a sacrifice fly of her own in the sixth to tie the game at 2-2.

Game 2 – W, 2-1

Freshman Christine LoVerde stepped up in the hero's role for game two. Her clutch single found the left center gap to score Sydney Engelhardt from second. Englehardt had walked to lead off the inning and advanced on a sacrifice.

Pitching was again dominant on both sides as the teams combined for just 11 hits. Sophomore Emily Claudy started in the circle for the Panthers, allowing just four hits and an unearned run in 6.2 innings. Whalen finished off the seventh inning, pitching in and out of a jam to preserve the tie.

Whalen picked up her second win of the day and fourth of the season with LoVerde's walkoff hit.

Cal Lutheran took the initial lead in the third on an error that extended the inning. Chapman responded in the sixth when freshman Heaven Wong's single brought home Tong.

The Panthers are back at home on Friday when they host Redlands in a SCIAC doubleheader at 2 p.m. 

by Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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