Weather not the only thing heating up as softball wins a pair

ORANGE, Calif. – With the mercury reaching 80-plus degrees at the Sun West Tournament on Tuesday, the Chapman University softball team also turned up the heat with a pair of wins. The Panthers came-from-behind to defeat Pacific University (Ore.) 4-3 and then handed University of Puget Sound (Wash.) a 7-3 loss at Hart Park to improve to 9-7 overall this season.

Game 1: Chapman 4, Pacific 3
A successful suicide squeeze in the bottom of the sixth inning snapped a 3-3 tie and provided the game-winner for the Panthers who rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Boxers. Freshman IF Kyla Javier provided the RBI sacrifice scoring sophomore IF Courtney James who had singled to begin the inning.

Freshman RHP Sarah Solis retired the Pacific lineup in the top of the seventh to earn her third win of the year. Solis allowed just five hits and one earned run in the complete game victory. The rookie right-hander also struck out a season-high six batters.

The Panthers trailed 3-1 in the fourth inning when they rallied for a pair of runs. Senior IF Dani Brown led off the inning with a double and Chapman loaded the bases after drawing back-to-back walks. Sophomore OF C.C. Daly drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and then sophomore OF Jojo Wakabayashi plated a second run with a two-out infield single to tie the score at 3-3. Wakabayashi had two of the Panthers’ six hits in the game.

Game 2: Chapman 7, Puget Sound 3
Chapman won for the fourth time in its past five games to climb two games over .500 for the second time this season.  The Panthers scored all seven runs in the first three innings on their way to a 7-3 victory.

The Panthers scored twice in the first inning on an RBI double by freshman OF Kerry Peterson and then a run-scoring single from Brown.

Chapman scored another run in the second and then exploded for four runs in the third inning. Brown hit a two-run double to right-center and then scored on sophomore DP Jayme Jarvis’ second home run of the season – a towering blast down the left field line. Brown was 2-for-3 with three RBI. Peterson and senior IF Melanie Villarroel each had a pair of hits for the Panthers.

Senior right-handers Vanessa Goncalves and Ally Waffle combined for 10 strikeouts and limited the Loggers to just three runs on eight hits. Goncalves earned her second win of the year, tossing five-plus innings of four-hit ball.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Boxscores:
Game 1: http://chapmanathletics.com/sports/sball/2009-10/stats/pac-cu.htm
Game 2: http://chapmanathletics.com/sports/sball/2009-10/stats/cu-pug.htm