BRISBANE, Calif. – The Chaminade University softball team continued their Bay Area jaunt Tuesday, but found hits hard to come by in their doubleheader loss to Academy of Art at Mission Blue Field.
The Silverswords (7-23 overall, 6-14 Pacific West Conference) were held to five combined hits in the twin bill while the Urban Knights (14-17, 9-9) banged out 22.
Jenn Betian and
Amber Manuel hit solo homers in the 4-2 loss in Game 1, but were held to only one in the 8-0, five inning loss in the second game.
Game 1The Urban Knights, who boast one of the top offenses in the PacWest, opened with a flurry, scoring four runs on seven hits in the first two innings off 'Swords starter
Brett Aspel. Two of the runs were aided by a pair of Silversword errors.
Meanwhile Urban Knights starter Brenna Mitchell was cruising through the lineup, retiring 11 of the first 12 Chaminade batters, allowing only a second inning walk to Betian.
Aja Keyes broke up Mitchell's no-hit bid with a single to left in the fourth inning.
Chaminade got on the board with Betian's lead-off blast to left to lead off the fifth, cutting ART U's lead to 4-1, her team-leading fourth homer of the season.
Aspel managed to survive her early troubles, retiring 11 of the last 12 batters she faced. The only baserunner to get on the rest of the way was Taylor Thurman who got a fifth inning two-out single. But Thurman was picked off at first by catcher
Ashley Phelps to end the frame.
In the top of the seventh, Manuel led off the inning with a solo shot to left, her first career homer. Betian then walked for the second time in the game to put the tying run at the plate, but the 'Swords were unable to bring the necessary two runs home to extend the game.
Mitchell (10-8) got the complete game win, striking out six with two walks. Aspel (3-7) K'd three in defeat.
The 'Swords managed only four base hits in the game, although the team had its second multi-homer game for the second time this season, giving them 10 home runs on the season, the most since 2013 when they hit 18.
Thurman was 3-for-3 for ART U.
Game 2The Urban Knights opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with two runs off starter
Luana Moreno, although both were unearned due to a Chaminade error. ART U added two more in the third to make it 4-0.
Like Mitchell in Game 1, Urban Knights starter Alex Peters baffled the Silverswords lineup. She was hitless through 4 2/3 innings, allowing only two walks and a hit batter.
Nicole Erichsen ended Peters' bid for a no-hitter with a single in the fifth, which proved to be Chaminade's only hit of the game.
In the bottom of the fifth with
Kaitlyn Watanabe working in relief, an error led to a Thurman RBI single. Later in the inning, a dropped pop-up that would've gotten the 'Swords out of the inning resulted in two more runs to score to make it 7-0. Andrea Gill then singled to left to drive in the game-ender as the Urban Knights made it 8-0 to win via the run-rule. All but one of the runs in the inning was unearned.
Peters (4-7) struck out two in her five-inning one-hit performance for ART U. Moreno (3-8) lasted only three innings, surrendering four runs, two of which were earned, on seven hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
Samantha Klune was 3-for-3 with two runs while Thurman and Jasmine Dickson each had two RBI as the Urban Knights belted 14 base hits. The Urban Knights, who committed more errors and had a lower fielding percentage than the 'Swords coming into the doubleheader, did not make an error in either game. Conversely, Chaminade committed five errors and only five of the 12 runs it surrendered were earned.
The Silverswords will make the drive south to Turlock, Calif., for the 2015 Tournament of Champions Presented by the Turlock Convention and Visitors Bureau from Friday through Sunday. The 'Swords will open the three-day tournament Friday with three games against Humboldt State, UC San Diego and San Francisco State.
For the first time ever, GoSwords.com will have live streaming audio coverage of all Chaminade games at the TOC TCVB.
