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 Playing in front of the home crowd for the second time in as many days, Cougar softball looked sharp on Wednesday, sweeping NCAA Division III opponent University of La Verne.  The Cougars won game one 8-0 and game two 4-1.

#8-ranked CSUSM improves to 19-4 on the year.  La Verne drops to 9-5.

After a sloppy double-header sweep of Bethany yesterday, the Cougars cleaned things up on Wednesday, looking sharp in the field and executing well at the plate.  The running game was out in full force again, with the Cougars swiping 12 bases on the day.

All-American pitcher Brenna Sandberg was her usual self, throwing all 12 innings on the day and picking up both wins to improve her record on the year to 16-4.  She threw 5 innings in game one, allowing just 1 hit and 3 walks while striking out 8 batters.  In game two, Sandberg pitched the full 7 innings, giving up a run on 6 hits while walking none and striking out 4.

The Cougars took command of game one early with a four-run second inning.  After Alex Miller drove in Derrisha Lacey with a double in the first, the big second inning happened largely because of aggressive base running that resulted in a run on a double steal and two on a fielder's choice.   Kimi Villalpando and Alicia Ingram recorded RBI's.

CSUSM closed it out with three runs in the fourth inning.  Sarah Quiambao led off by ripping a home run over the fence in left, Derrisha Lacey reached on an error then used her speed to work around the base paths and score on a Miller single, and Alyssa Dronenburg scored the final run on a double steal.  The game was called at 8-0 via the mercy rule following Sandberg's perfect fifth inning, where she struck out the side.

Game two would prove a much tighter affair, as La Verne jumped out to a 1-0 lead early and held it for much of the early game.  But the Cougars broke through in the fourth, taking advantage of a key two out error to plate a pair of runs.  Miller delivered another RBI base hit, scoring Dronenburg to put CSUSM up 2-1.

The Cougars would stretch the lead to 4-1 the following inning.  With two outs and nobody on, Alicia Ingram beat out an infield single, stole second, and scored on a Dronenburg single.  Miller then drove in Dronenburg to add what would be the game's final run.

The CSUSM Cougar Clash starts tomorrow, with six teams coming to San Marcos to play a tournament through next Thursday.  Check out the tournament page at www.csusmcougars.com/cougarclash for the full schedule.