Bats stay hot, softball takes series over La Verne

ORANGE, Calif. – The offense stayed hot as the Chapman University softball team took the series over La Ver with an 11-4 road win. The Panthers broke a 4-4 tie in the fourth and senior Mykala Tokunaga turned in four scoreless innings out of the bullpen to get the win.

Junior Julia Muniz was again a force at the plate with another multi-hit, multi-RBI game. She went 4-for-5 with two doubles, scored three times and dove in four RBIs. Through the Panthers first 16 games, she is hitting .500 with six doubles, two triples and 17 RBIs.

Muniz started the scoring with an RBI single in the top of the first and later scored on Annika Briski's single. Muniz doubled in another run in the fourth and two more in the seventh.

The game went back-and-forth early on as the Panthers went up two but La Verne tied the game in the second. Another clutch hit from Summer Lake put Chapman up 3-2 in the third and Zela Chahbazian followed with an RBI-single for another two-run lead.

Jocelyn Robertson's two-run homer in the bottom half of the inning tied it back up but Muniz doubled in Tracie Okumura in the top of the fourth to put Chapman back up for good. Chahbazian capped a four-run fourth with her first career home run. The Panthers added three insurance runs in the seventh.

Tokunaga worked out of a jam in the fourth but then cruised to the victory. She struck out one and allowed just three hits.

The Panthers take on Redlands in the final SCIAC series of the regular season. Chapman will look to avenge a series sweep from earlier in the season and secure the No. 2 seed in the SCIAC Tournament. The series begins in Redlands but shift to El Camino Real Park on Saturday for a noon doubleheader.

By Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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