Champman Box Score /
Tufts Box Score /
GameDay Online
ORANGE, Calif. — It wasn't quite the start to their spring trip that coach
Jen Miller was hoping for.
The Saint Mary's University fastpitch softball team dropped both games during its opening day of the Sun West Tournament Monday, falling to host Chapman 9-2, then giving up two runs in the top of the seventh inning in losing an 8-7 decision to Tufts.
"It was a tough first day," said Miller, whose team dropped to 1-5 on the season. "Chapman is a very good team that has already played a ton of games (23 to be exact) and it showed. I thought we played much better against Tufts, but in both games, we had one bad inning — and both times, it cost us."
In their game against Chapman, that inning came in the fourth, as the Cardinals — leading 2-0 on a first-inning RBI single by
Mallory Betzold (Farmington, Minn.) and a fourth-inning RBI double by
Jenny Giannini (River Grove, Ill.) — gave up eight runs in the bottom of the fourth to turn that two-run cushion into a deep, 8-2 hole.
The Panthers would add one more run in the bottom of the sixth to complete the rout. Chapman tagged two SMU pitchers for nine runs on 12 hits, whlie SMU managed just four hits — from four different players — off Panther hurler Katie Finley.
Against Tufts, the Cardinals once again four themselves starting at a fifth-inning hole, as Tufts erupted for five runs in the top of the fifth inning to grab a 6-2 advantage.
This time, however, SMU found a way to dig its way out, scoring twice in the bottom of the fifth and three times in the sixth to grab a 7-6 lead heading into the seventh inning. In the seventh, however, the Jumbos belted a lead-off home run and a two-out single to plate two runs and secure the win.
"We knew coming in that we were going to have a tough schedule here (in California)," said Miller, whose team returns to action Tuesday, taking on Williams (3 p.m. Western time) and Central-Iowa (8 p.m.). "We swung the bats fairly well (against Tufts) and, hopefully, that will continue (Tuesday).
