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Just a week away from hosting an A.I.I. Conference Championship Tournament that will feature three teams ranked in the top-10 nationally and the defending national champion, CSUSM softball got a tough test from Azusa Pacific on Tuesday, splitting a pair of 3-2 games.
#3 San Marcos is now 37-7 on the year. #12 Azusa Pacific is 28-18.
Playing at Azusa, the double-header was closely contested throughout the night. After three scoreless innings to start game one, CSUSM broke through with a three-run fourth inning. Alex Miller and Alyssa Dronenburg got things going with back-to-back one-out triples, and after Shanti Poston drew a walk and stole second, Kimi Villalpando came through with a big two-run single to make it 3-0.
That would be all the visitors got off of APU pitchers Taryn Devich and Mariah Worley, leaving it up to All-American Brenna Sandberg to hold the lead. Things were smooth for Sandberg for most of the game, and through six innings she had allowed just two hits, no runs, and struck out 9.
But the seventh would prove tricky, as a two-run, two-out home run cut the lead to 3-2. Sandberg recovered though, inducing a fly-out to end the game. She finished her 33rd win of the season with 10 strikeouts.
Game two would be similarly contested. The teams traded runs in the first inning, with CSUSM scoring on a Miller single that plated Derrisha Lacey. For the next six innings, it was all about pitchers Sandberg and Devich, with each shutting down the opposing lineup.
Even with the international tiebreaker in effect, neither team could break through in the eighth, with both pitchers stranding runners at third. Finally CSUSM broke the tie in the ninth, with Ingram drawing a bases loaded walk to force home Heavin-Lee Rodriguez.
But Azusa tied it in the bottom of the ninth with a sac fly, and after CSUSM had a runner thrown out at home in the tenth, Azusa won it with another sac fly, 3-2.
CSUSM will be in action in their regular season finale on Saturday at Hope International, before coming home to play in the conference tournament May 5-7. For information about that event, visit www.csusmcougars.com/aiisoftball.
