The Cougars won the opening game, 1-0, on the strength of Camille Hundley’s dominating pitching performance.
Barnaby, a do-everything standout last year at Millikan High in Long Beach, Calif., has struggled to find her way through the opening month of her college career. She had just 4 hits in her first 32 at-bats (.125), and one of those came in the first game vs. Vanguard. However, after Weisser led off the inning by inducing a walk and then moving to second on a Erika Marmolejo’s sacrifice bunt, Barnaby ripped a double over the third baseman’s head and down the leftfield line to send Weisser home with the go-ahead run and put Azusa Pacific up 3-2.
The rest was up to pitcher Erin Halma, who retired the final 6 Lions, including 2 by strikeout, to preserve the victory and the sweep. Halma improves to 6-4 on the season. The 6 victories are a season high for the junior hurler.
Vanguard had assumed a 2-1 lead on the Halma with an unearned run in the second and another run in the third innings. Yet, Halma retired 13 of the final 14 Lions she faced, and knotted the game at 2-2 in the fourth inning after Marmolejo led off with a double to the gap in left-center and came home on Bailey Balzek’s single up the middle.
For the second straight game, Hundley was magnificent in the pitcher’s circle, firing 5 innings of no-hit softball in the opening game and wiggling out of a 1-out, bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh by registering her fifth strike out of the game before forcing a game-ending ground out.
The Cougars scored the only run they needed in the second inning when Nicole Llorens ripped a 1-out triple into the gap in right-center. Weisser followed with a single through the left side to send Llorens trotting home.
The Cougars put runners at third base with less than 2 outs in the third and fifth innings but couldn’t capitalize on the chances. However, it was all moot as Hundley recorded her second straight GSAC shutout.
Hundley improves to 6-5 on the season.
All-GSAC centerfield Jen Whitten went 3-for-7 on the day with a run while Barnaby, Natalie Mickelson and Erika Navarrete all had 2 hits.
With the sweep Azusa Pacific moves to 13-9 overall and evens its GSAC record at 3-3. Vanguard falls t 13-12 overall, 1-5 in the GSAC.
