COSTA MESA, Calif. – The No. 11 Cal State San Marcos softball team beat No. 14 Vanguard in the opening game, 6-3, before falling 7-5 in game two in the teams' doubleheader on Thursday afternoon at VU Field.

The Cougars move to 26-11 overall, while the Lions are now 33-11.

The split marks the end of a stretch of 10 games in a span of seven games for the Cougars, six of those contests taking place against ranked teams. CSUSM went 5-5.

Game 1
The Cougars trailed 3-1 after four innings, but scored three in the fifth and a pair in the seventh en route to a 6-3 victory.

Brogan Hoenisch went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI and put the Cougars in the lead for good with an RBI single that made it 4-3 in the fifth. Olivia Lucatuorto, who scored on Hoenisch's single, had tied the game with a two-run double earlier in the inning.

In the seventh, Hoenisch knocked in Breana Reyes before Sara Langdon scored on a throwing error by the catcher.

Naomi Amu (1-1) earned her first victory as a Cougar, coming on in relief of starter Ashley Dagenais in the fifth inning. Amu allowed just one hit, walked one and struck out two.

Holly Fauria went 3-for-4 and scored twice.

Game 2
Trailing by as many as six in game two, the Cougars rallied to put the tying run on base in the top of the seventh, but VU held on for a 7-5 win.

Down 7-1 in the sixth, a two-run double from freshman Amanda Meek and a RBI single from Caylyn Rodriguez made it 7-4 in VU's favor.

In the seventh, the Cougars loaded the bases on back-to-back one-out singles from Hoenisch and Robyn Alvara and a fielding error on Sarah Quiambao's ground ball.

Meek then brought home Alvara with a sacrifice fly that pulled the Cougars within two, and the runners advanced to put Cougars on second and third with two out.

With the tying run 120 feet away, Taylor Doyle got Devin Vanderhoff to ground out to end the ball game.

Amu (1-2) was credited with the loss after 3.1 innings of work. Neither of the runs she gave up were earned.

Fauria went 3-for-4 in game two.