Toros One Win Away From CCAA Tournament Title After 2-1 Win Over Chico State

CSUDH faces Sonoma State in title round tomorrow at noon

STOCKTON -- Exploding for an eight-run win in yesterday's opening day of play, Cal State Dominguez Hills scored just enough runs in today's opening session, making a two-run first inning stand up in a 2-1 win over Chico State to advance to tomorrow's title round against Sonoma State. Freshman Lauren Harper picked up her second win in as many outings after 5.0 innings of work with just two hits allowed.

With the win, the Toros advance to Sunday's championship round needing just one win against Sonoma State, which sent home CS Monterey Bay and Chico State in back-to-back elimination games, to gain the league's automatic qualifier into the NCAA West Region tournament, set to begin in two weeks.

In contrast, SSU will need to defeat CSUDH twice to gain the automatic berth.

Senior Katie Garcia got the Toros started off right, belting a home run to left center to lead off the semifinal game. A single and two walks later brought up Michelle Miranda, who drew a bases-loaded walk for the second run of the game, prompting a Chico State pitching change.

That's where the score remained until the 3rd inning when Chico's Charlotte Honciano roped a one-out single with Jessie Minch on 2B, cutting the CSUDH lead in half.

That would be the extent of Chico's run production on the day, however, as Harper and fellow freshman Stephanie Jimenez held the Wildcats to just two hits the rest of the game, duplicating yesterday's contest that saw Harper pick up the win and Jimenez the save.

CSUDH, which improves to 33-19 after two wins in its first-ever CCAA Championship Tournament appearance, moves on to tomorrow's Championship round where it will face the Seawolves after besting SSU 9-1 in the opening game of the tournament.

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