IRVINE – The Cal State Dominguez Hills softball team got its first taste as the defending NCAA West Region champions Friday as the Toros opened the season and the Concordia Kickoff Classic with a split, dropping the opener 4-2 to Biola in the morning and then holding off a 2-0 win over Western Washington under the lights.
Game 1 – Biola 4, CSUDH 2
Whether this was coincident or not, the CUI Kickoff Classic got a good matchup to start day 1 at the main stadium of Great Park, pitting the last two national runner-up against each other.
Although first pitch was at 9 a.m., the Toros appeared to have awaken and ready for the day.
Ashley Wies threw two perfect innings to start the morning, but Biola's bats awaken in the third and with just four hits, including a triple, the Eagles scored all four of their runs.
Dominguez Hills did get a run back in the fourth inning.
Alex Davis drew a one-out, four-pitch walk and found her way home on back-to-back two-out singles by pinch-hitter
Amara Labonog and leadoff hitter
Amara Labonog to make it 4-1 Biola.
After a groundout and a flyout in her first two at-bats,
Alani Nguyen made it a third time a charm moment in her Toro debut, crushing a leadoff home run to center field to cut the deficit in half.
While the Toros logged in six hits and five walks, they left seven runners on base. Biola, on the other hand, had four hits and left two on.
Wies had three strikeouts in three innings to start the season.
Alyssa Olague, who came up just one strikeout short from tying pitching coach Stephanie Guerra's single-season record last year, struck out two in as many innings of relief.
Sara Bhatt, also making her Toro debut, struck out one in the sixth inning.
Game 2 – CSUDH 2, WWU 0
After both teams had opportunities to put runs on the board the first two innings but were left stranded, Dominguez Hills got capitalization in the third.
Haylee Garcia and
Raquel Jaime drew back-to-back leadoff walks and then they each stole a bag. After a groundout,
Maiya Lopez hit a fly ball to center field that was deep enough to score Garcia, but Jaime was beaten by the relay throw trying to take third base.
The insurance run came in the fourth inning. Nguyen led off with a single to center and scored all the way from second on Davis' RBI double down the right field line, giving the Toros a 2-0 lead.
Wies got the starting nod again, this time pitching two shutout innings while allowing just four hits and striking out two. She did end the day no issuing a walk. Bhatt also threw two innings of relief, striking out one and walking one. Olague came in relief again and had to pitch three innings to earn save No. 1 of the season.
Western Washington, coming off a 1-0 defeat to Concordia earlier in the day, gathered eight hits against the Toros. Sydney Brown threw all innings, striking out three but gave up four walks.
The Toros return to Great Park Saturday for another early game, taking on Hawai`i Hilo at 9 a.m. followed by Central Washington at 1:30 p.m.
