In the victory over Southern Oregon, the Cougars’ second of the tournament, senior pitcher Camille Hundley fired her third complete-game shutout in the past 4 outings with a 4-hit gem over the Raiders. She yielded just 1 safety over her final 4 inning of work, though a touch of wildness and some suspect Cougar defense put her in a pair of jams, including a bases-loaded threat in the fourth inning, that she escaped both times. She struck out 6, including 3 of the final 6 batters she faced.
The Cougars got all the offense they needed with Natalie Mickelson’s 2-out double that plated Erica Navarrete in the first inning.
However, they offered Hundley insurance with single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Senior Bailey Blazek parlayed both of her singles into runs by stealing a combined 3 bases. She scored in the third on Navarrete’s ground out and scored in the fifth on Erin Halma’s 2-out single to leftfield.
In the first game, Halma appeared to be leading Azusa Pacific to a victory by firing 6 innings of shutout softball. Concordia, though, used a 2-out single by Nicole Illias to tally the game’s first run in the top of seventh.
The Cougars staved off defeated in the bottom of the seventh and forced extra innings when Halma led off the inning with a double and later scored on Hundley’s 2-out single to right.
In the top of the eighth, the Cavaliers took advantage of 2 Azusa Pacific errors to go up 2-1, and though Azusa Pacific put the game-tying run on base in the bottom half of the frame, the Cougars could not push that runner around and suffered its second extra-inning set back of the trip.
Throughout her career, Halma has had a knack for coming up with key outs in crucial situations and today was no different. She stranded 13 Cavaliers on base, including 7 in scoring position. At the plate, she went 3-for-6 in the 2 games with a run and an RBI. Mickelson was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
With the split, the Cougars move to 8-6 on the season. They open Golden State Athletic Conference play at home Tuesday (March 3) with a 4 p.m. doubleheader vs. Concordia University-Irvine.
