TURLOCK, Calif. -- The Sonoma State softball team exploded for nine more runs in game one to win 9-3, but a pitcher's duel in game two that yielded just one run in eight innings between both teams saw SSU fall on the losing end of the 1-0 ballgame, as the Seawolves settled for the doubleheader split with host Stanislaus State on Saturday in Turlock.
Sonoma (27-19, 19-14 CCAA) remains in fourth place in the conference standings with six CCAA games to play before the conference championships in two weeks.
It was all Seawolves in game one as
Carlie Daniel continued to dominate Warrior pitching this weekend, bringing home the first run of the game in the third inning, an RBI single to center field that scored
Alison Strycula. In the fourth,
Lindsey Calcany Blair doubled home
Aubrie Tolliver for the 2-0 lead, then in the fifth, Sonoma put up six runs to take an 8-0 lead. In that inning, Daniel again brought home a run when she reached on a throwing error as Strycula scored.
Jordann White homered for two runs and a 5-0 lead before
Mayleen Mazon helped her cause in the circle with a three-run home run for the eight-run lead.
The Seawolves needed just three outs in the bottom of the fifth to induce the mercy rule, but the Warriors plated three runs off of Mazon to extend the game.
Sarah Langley added another SSU run in the sixth on an RBI double, accounting for the 9-3 final score in game one.
Mazon got the start in the circle for the Seawolves, improving to 2-6 this season despite giving up all three runs on nine hits and two walks.
Amanda Llerena came in to stop the bleeding in the fifth and went the rest of the way, allowing two hits and striking out four.
It was a much different story in the series finale between the two squads as neither team would score a run in the first seven innings, thanks to a pitcher's duel between Sonoma's
Brielle Vidmar and Stanislaus' Karina Callazo.
Fast forwarding to the bottom of the eighth inning, the Warriors' Morgan Balestreri led off with a slash hit to left to flip the lineup back up to the top. Alexus Martinez then bounced one up the middle past Calcany Blair at second base to set up runners at the corners without an out. Nicolette Vizcaino then came up and hit a soft liner over Calcany Blair to drive in the game-winner.
That sequence finally ended the scoreless tie and the duel between Vidmar and Callazo. Vidmar, who took a no-hitter into the seventh Friday night, again held the Warriors to two hits until the eighth. She fell to 7-5 on the year.
Daniel went 2 for 4 and added another double in the loss.
Sonoma State will finally wrap up its 23-game road trip when it visits San Francisco State for two more games Monday at 1:00 pm. The Seawolves then return home Friday and Saturday for their final four games of the regular season, hosting Cal State Dominguez Hills.
