TURLOCK – After splitting its opening two games on Friday, then dropping two games on Saturday, the Chico State softball team rebounded to win two games on Sunday in single-elimination pool play to win the Bronze Bracket. The Wildcats beat Chaminade University 8-0 in six innings and downed St. Martin’s University 6-4.
Humboldt State won the Gold Bracket and UC San Diego took the Silver Bracket.
Lauren Walker (W, 7-8) picked up her first shut out of the season, allowing just four hits and one walk, while striking out five. The game was ended after six innings due to the eight-run rule.
Megan Bera blasted her second home run of the season over the center field fence to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
The one run would have been enough to hold up, but the Wildcats added four more in the fourth. Nickie Jarret and Christine Johnson both drove in runs and Chico State added two more unearned runs in the frame on two Chaminade errors.
The Wildcats strung together three hits in the fifth to push across a solo run on Kaitlyn Azevedo’s RBI single up the middle. But the ‘Cats put the game out of reach in the sixth with two more runs courtesy of an RBI single by Bera and a run-scoring double by Allison Smith.
The 12 hits is the most by the Wildcats this season and included two apiece by Bera, Smith, Azevedo, Jarrett, and Chelsea Lundberg.
In the 6-4 win over St. Martin’s, Chico State took a 6-2 lead into the seventh, but SMU rallied for two unearned runs on a two-out double, but the Wildcats were able to end the threat as the runner tried to take third on the play and was thrown out.
Lundberg belted her first home run of the season in the bottom of the first to give the Wildcats a 2-1 lead. The ‘Cats added two more in the third and Rebecca Johnson tallied her first homer of the year in the fifth to make it 5-2. The final Chico State run came on a RBI triple by Bera.
Chico State (18-21) had 11 hits in the game, including three by Bera, and two each by Lundberg and Jarrett.
Krystal Shaw (W, 10-10) evened her record with the win. She allowed four runs, two earned, on six hits. She struck out three and walked two.
