ROHNERT PARK -- The Sonoma State softball team rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning of game one to tie the game at 5-5, but it wasn't until the top of the 14th inning that Cal State Monterey Bay could break the tie and eventually capture the 6-5 victory after a four hour, 19 minute marathon in the opener of Wednesday's doubleheader at the Seawolf Softball Field in Rohnert Park. 

Game two of the doubleheader was halted after five complete innings with the two teams tied at 1-1.  The game will have to be continued and finished at a later date and time, which has yet to be determined.

After the game one loss, the Seawolves fell to 11-10 overall and 8-7 in the CCAA.  The Otters improved to 12-14 and 7-12 in conference play.

Sonoma State will play host to Cal State San Marcos in a four-game series Friday and Saturday before heading out on the road for a full month, which will feature a string of 23 games away from the Seawolf Softball Field.

GAME 1:  Cal State Monterey Bay 6, Sonoma State 5 (14 innings)

It was the longest game for Sonoma State since Mar. 3, 2000 when it won 7-5 at Cal State Stanislaus in 15 frames.  However, that game didn't go over four hours like Wednesday's game did.  While it was as long as anyone has seen out of the SSU softball program in recent memory, it came nowhere close to the 21-inning game that Sonoma State and Chico State played back in 1985.

Between first pitch and the final out, a total of 438 pitches were thrown between three pitchers, 199 of those coming from the arm of SSU starter Amanda Llerena, who went the full 14 innings -- a new program-record for most innings pitched in a single game -- allowing 16 hits, six runs (five earned), four walks, while striking out three.  She faced 63 batters, but ended up on the losing end of the 6-5 score despite her valiant effort in the circle.  In fact, after giving up 11 hits and five runs through the first three-plus innings of work, Llerena didn't allow a hit for seven consecutive innings between the fourth and the 11th, and tossed 10 innings of shutout ball until allowing the go-ahead run in the top of the 14th.

Tori Pierucci and Bianca Noriega split the time in the circle for Cal State Monterey Bay in the opener.  Pierucci went the first 6.1 innings and allowed five runs on six hits and two walks before Noriega came on for the final 7.2 innings to give up just three hits and three walks, striking out nine and keeping the Seawolves off the board after they knotted the game in the bottom of the seventh.

The Otters struck first almost immediately on RBI's by Madison Casto and Annelise Lopez in the top of the first inning.  The Seawolves came right back with two runs in the bottom of the first on RBI's by Jena Kaser and Carlie Daniel.  In the top of the third, CSUMB plated three runs to take a 5-2 lead and it would stay that way until the bottom of the seventh.

Facing a three-run deficit, Jordann White recorded an RBI groundout, scoring Alison Strycula, then Kaser doubled home Leanna Georges before Daniel lifted a game-tying sacrifice fly scoring Aubrie Tolliver.  From then on, both Llerena and Noriega posted shutout innings in the circle until the 14th when CSUMB finally got one in on Llerena for the first time since the third inning.

Down by a run in the bottom of the 14th, Tolliver led off the inning with a double to left center field, but two fly outs and a foul out in the next three at bats would spell doom for the Seawolves.

White and Kaser had two hits each for Sonoma, which had a total of nine in the game. 

GAME 2:  Sonoma State 1, Cal State Monterey Bay 1 (Halted in Top 6, darkness)

The Otters again struck first, plating a run in the top of the second off of Seawolf game two starter Brielle Vidmar.  Sonoma got the run back in the bottom of the third when Georges doubled home Kristine Ricossa, who doubled to lead off the inning.

Sonoma had a chance to take the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning that would have made the game official.  The Seawolves had runners on second and third with one out, but a foul out and a groundout ended the threat, and before a pitch was thrown in the top of the sixth, the umpires and both coaches came together in agreement that it was too dark to continue.

The final two innings will be played at a date and time to be determined later.