SANTEE, Calif. – The No. 11 Cal State San Marcos softball team wasted no time in its doubleheader sweep of San Diego Christian, run-ruling the Hawks in the minimum amount of innings, 11-3 and 13-5, on Tuesday afternoon at Sportsplex USA Santee.
Olivia Lucatuorto homered twice with a grand slam in game one,
Devin Vanderhoff added another grand slam as a part of a seven-run second inning in game two, and the Cougars notched their seventh consecutive season with at least 30 victories while improve to 30-11 overall.
In addition, the Cougars have won eight of their last nine.
CSUSM's regular season concludes this weekend with a pair of doubleheaders against Azusa Pacific (Friday, April 17, 2 p.m.) and the University of Antelope Valley (Saturday, April 18, 12 p.m.).
Game 1The Cougars opened the day with back-to-back home runs from Lucatuorto and
Naomi Amu in the top of the first and never looked back in an 11-3, five-inning victory.
Following the two homers,
Sarah Quiambao came through with an RBI double to push CSUSM's lead to 3-0.
Robyn Alvara registered a two-run single in the second inning to push the lead to 5-0, before
Caylyn Rodriguez pushed the lead to seven with a two-run home run in the third.
Rodriguez went 3-for-3 and also scored twice in game one.
Leading 7-3 in the top of the fifth,
Lindsay Cerulle singled through the right side, Rodriguez doubled and
Holly Fauria reached on an error by the pitcher. Lucatuorto then sent a pitch over the right-centerfield wall for her fifth home run this season and second of the grand-slam variety.
Ashley Dagenais earned the victory after allowing five hits, three walks and three earned runs.
Game 2A seven-run second inning highlighted by Vanderhoff's grand slam helped CSUSM to another run-rule victory in five innings, this time by a score of 13-5.
Lucatuorto continued right where she left off, singling up the middle to score Fauria in the first to make it 2-0. CSUSM would add two more in the frame on Alvara's RBI ground rule double and a sacrifice fly from
Brogan Hoenisch.
Lucatuorto added another RBI single in the second inning before Amu singled to score Rodriguez. An infield error Fauria to score to make it 7-1 in favor of the Cougars and they reloaded the bases.
Vanderhoff then sent a two-out home run over the left-field wall to push the lead to 11-1.
Amanda Meek added a two-run single in the third to make it 13-1.
Amu earned the complete-game victory, striking out seven and walking seven in the process.