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Courtney Droke |
Tripling to right field, La Verne’s Jessica Ortega reached first base while driving in three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning for her team Saturday at Wheeler Park. The Leopards gained a mercy-rule victory against the Whittier Poets with a final score of 10-2. The Leopards are scheduled to begin the SCIAC Tournament this weekend. |
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Jennifer Gilderman
Copy Editor
While the softball team might have started their season on a rocky note, a win over Occidental and a sweep against Whittier this past weekend, gave the Leopards a huge confidence boost.
When La Verne swept Whittier in game one, 10-2 and in game two 6-4 on Saturday afternoon at Wheeler Park, they also secured their spot in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, which will take place this weekend and decide which team advances to Regionals.
ULV increased their record to 24-16 overall and 14-10 in SCIAC. La Verne has closed the season with eight consecutive wins earning themselves the No. 3 spot in conference.
“We’ve been up and down all season,” junior third baseman Kari Granger said. “I don’t think our record reflects what type of team we are, we’ve worked hard and now that’s paying off.”
At the start of the first game ULV honored its five seniors: Jodi Lindsay, Karina Ortiz, Trisha McCormick, Jessica McLaughlin and Jenny Strycula.
In game one ULV got off to an early lead, scoring half their runs in just the first two innings.
Freshman Ashley Paul singled to start off the inning and Melissa Carlson made it to first on a bunt, while right behind her was Lindsay who also rallied with a single.
With the bases loaded, Lyndsey Padilla found a sweet spot out in right field, hitting a two-run double. Mandy Brenner added another single while driving in a run, quickly making the score 3-0 in the opening inning.
Whittier would only retaliate with one run in the top of the second. But with Carlson’s RBI double and Padilla’s RBI single, Whittier would have to play catch-up on the Leopards 5-1 lead.
Ortega hit a three-run triple to highlight the sixth inning. Granger belted her fourth homer of the season in the third inning.
The Leopards closed with a four-run sixth inning to seize a mercy-rule victory.
McLaughlin held Whittier to just two runs in five innings, notching her 11th win.
“Whittier gave us a good doubleheader the first time around; they gave us a good challenge,” Granger said.
“But we were on fire this weekend.”
And with the momentum from the first game, La Verne would need that and translate that into another win during game two.
It was another impressive second inning for the Leopards, as they scored four of their six runs, which three of those RBIs were a result of Paul’s double up the middle.
However, when Whittier fought back, forcing La Verne to make five uncalled errors the women found themselves in a 4-4 tie at the bottom of the sixth.
But La Verne was able to overcome the miscues by plating two runs as Lindsay and Padilla each singled in runs to propel La Verne to victory.
Granger has said this team is very close on and off the field credits their friendship to getting them out of the hard times.
“When our energy’s low were able to carry each other and pick each other up,” Granger said.
“We’ve worked really hard fixing the glitches in our game,” Brenner said.
“We’ve made huge improvements and these wins have helped boost our confidence.”
This weekend La Verne will face their biggest challenge of the season, which is the conference tournament.
This is the first time SCIAC has held a tournament of the top four teams, to see who will represent the conference at Regionals.
“The best thing about this is the tournament,” Granger said. “This still gives us a chance.”
“Our goal is to go all the way,” Brenner said. “We've beat a lot of our goals but we all have faith we can win.
The inaugural double-elimination event takes place today and tomorrow at the Softball Field of Dreams at Redlands.
The Leopards will face a competitive Claremont-Mudd Scripps in the opening game.
Jennifer Gilderman can be reached at jgilderman@ulv.edu.
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