After a team effort earned the Long Beach State softball team two wins in a doubleheader against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, the 49ers had little fuel left and dropped the series finale Sunday afternoon.
LBSU (30-19, 12-6 Big West Conference) opened the series with a complete performance and a 6-0 win.
The 49ers overpowered the UCSB (26-19, 7-8 Big West) offense with a pair of three-run home runs, one by Nalani St. Germain and another by Sarah Carrasco. Amanda Hansen held the Gauchos scoreless to earn her third shutout in two weeks.
An errorless game followed by another solid start in game two by pitcher Erin Jones-Wesley was everything that head coach Kim Sowder wanted to see.
“I couldn’t have asked for more than how we played today,” Sowder said.
St. Germain homered again in the sixth inning of game two. She reached base on fielder’s choice plays in two other at-bats, eventually scoring LBSU’s third run on a two-run single up the middle by Emily Gregorio.
“I felt like everything was on today.” Sowder said. “Amanda [Hansen] did a really nice job in the circle that first game, and we played great defense.”
Having just tossed seven shutout innings in the first game of the doubleheader, Hansen was called on in the sixth inning of the second game to step in for Jones-Wesley, who left the game despite allowing only one hit.
Sowder said that Jones-Wesley started the game with a sore knee that was starting to bother her enough to the point that she needed to be taken out. Jones-Wesley will be able to rest her knee during the week before a big series with Hawaii.
Hansen looked a little different in a relief role than she has as a starter. She surrendered a leadoff hit to left fielder Shelby Wisdom. Following a fielder’s choice that prevented Wisdom from scoring, Hansen threw a hanging curveball that designated player Jenessa Jeppesen crushed over the center-right field wall to cut The Beach’s lead to one.
The 49ers responded, though, as they countered in the bottom frame with two runs of their own, one of which came on St. Germain’s homer.
After allowing 12 hits within her two appearances Saturday, Hansen was quick to credit the wins to her teammates behind her.
“Defense was on in both games so much,” Hansen said. “I just loved it. They helped me a lot when I was missing my pitches.”
The production that LBSU exerted Saturday seemed to sap the team of its energy by Sunday. They entered the seventh inning with just two hits, Carrasco doubled, and Ashley Homles hit an RBI single to stage a last-chance rally. The effort eventually came up short, though, as the ‘Niners ultimately lost 2-1.
A fourth-inning triple by Gaucho first baseman Lauren Boser and a triple by third baseman Jessica Reichner in the fifth were the two hits that cost Hansen the game.
Hansen has pitched a full seven innings in each of her last seven starts. In those starts, she has thrown three shutouts and has a remarkable 1.29 ERA.
Despite pitching over two-thirds of the weekend, Hansen said she would have been able to pitch even more if the team needed her to.
“I was fine. I was ready,” she said. “If I would have started the second game I would have been fine. I felt really loose and alive.”
Hansen’s durability could come in handy if Jones-Wesley isn’t completely healthy by the weekend.
The 49ers will head out on their final road trip of the regular season Friday for a three-game series at first-place Hawaii (37-8, 14-1). Friday’s game will start at 6 p.m. local time.