The Long Beach State softball team lost a pair of close games to Maine in its home opener, 6-4 and 3-2. This comes after three consecutive weeks of playing tournaments on the road.
“We’re ecstatic about playing at home,” head coach Kim Sowder said before the game. “We even get to break in a new scoreboard.”
The 49ers (6-11) liked what they saw on that scoreboard early, as they built up a 4-0 lead over five innings. But some costly errors and a string of hits to left field by Maine (4-6) led to a five-run sixth inning and the Niners could never recover.
They threatened by getting two on with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but two fly balls prevented any runs from being scored. Erin Jones-Wesley pitched a complete game and struck out eight but took the loss, bringing her record to 6-5 on the season.
Junior second baseman Cya Neal went 3-for-4 in the leadoff spot for LBSU, scoring two of the four 49er runs. Junior first baseman Ashlynn Booker picked up two hits and a run batted in.
The final game of the doubleheader went to extra innings after Long Beach State came back from a two-run deficit, but the ‘Niners came up short again, this time dropping a 3-2 decision.
Sophomore Starting pitcher Christian Carbajal looked to be in line to get her first win of the season, but the offense left too many runners stranded to get the runs necessary for a victory. She took the loss despite putting in eight innings of work
.
“We haven’t gotten off to the start we would have liked to.” Sowder said. “We’ve had great offensive, defensive and pitching outings. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”
Neal had another solid output for the ‘Niners, going 2-for-4 with a RBI. Sophomore third baseman Karli Sandoval went 3-for-3 with a run batted in.
LBSU will try to do just that this weekend when they visit Santee for the first part of the San Diego Classic. There they will play five games in three days against Nevada, Utah State, BYU, Charlotte and San Diego State.
The 49ers were eliminated from the NCAA tournament by San Diego State last year. The tournament will begin on Friday.