The Long Beach State softball team did what it’s been doing nearly all conference season long this weekend when it sent its final conference opponent home with a series loss.
The ‘Niners (35-20, 17-7 Big West) topped off a conference season during which they lost only one series by sweeping UC Davis (22-27, 8-13), winning 2-0 and 6-1 in a doubleheader on Saturday before completing the sweep with a 1-0 win in eight innings Sunday.
The sweep was highlighted by 15 scoreless innings pitched by Erin Jones-Wesley and a single-season RBI record broken by Darian Tautalafua in the back end of Saturday’s doubleheader.
What is more impressive is that LBSU performed the sweep in part by handing last year’s Big West Pitcher of the Year, Justine Vela, two losses. With a 2.18 ERA, Vela is one of the conference’s leading ERA holders this season.
Jones-Wesley threw two shutouts, including a one-hitter in the series’ opening game. She has pitched through a sprained lateral collateral ligament the last two weeks. While she said that her velocity has slowed down as a result, she has been just as effective as ever. In her five appearances since then, she has posted a 1.17 ERA.
“I don’t think I’m throwing as hard as I usually do,” Jones-Wesley said, “but it’s kind of helping my pitches more since I don’t have as much speed on it.”
Head coach Kim Sowder used her sparingly at first, as she only pitched five innings against UC Santa Barbara. After two quality starts last weekend where she tamed a wild Hawaii offense, Jones-Wesley has seen a lot more innings, as well as continued success.
Tautalafua has achieved more success this season than most other past 49ers hitters, and she is only a freshman. Along with breaking the school’s single season RBI record with 44, her two homers over the weekend put her within two of the school’s single season home run record.
The center fielder hit a game-tying solo home run in fourth inning of Saturday’s second game before breaking the game wide open with a three run shot the following inning. She said hitting the first home run made it easier for her to do again.
“I just adjusted to the at-bats I had before,” Tautalafua said. “It was that drop ball she was throwing, and I kept fouling it off my leg or pulling it foul, so I just made adjustments.”
Sowder instead credited the 49ers’ big inning to the pressure that Tautalafua placed on UC Davis pitcher Jessica Thweatt, noting a wild pitch that allowed Hannah De Gaetano to score before Tautalafua’s second homer.
“When you continue to put pressure on teams, eventually it’s going to work out for you,” Sowder said. “Coming up with bases loaded, it’s going to be in [the opposing pitcher’s] head a little bit more because of the previous at-bats.”
Tautalafua’s four RBIs broke a 13-year single season record that had been held by former 49er right fielder Jessica Smith at 43.
In Sunday’s concluding game, Karli Sandoval presented another bases loaded opportunity for the 49ers in the team’s final at-bat. This time, the result was less climatic.
In a 0-0 deadlock, Shayna Kimbrough led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a first pitch double off the center field wall, initiating a second rally. Leilani Tupua-Tautalatasi walked, De Gaetano moved the runners with a bunt, and Tautalafua walked to load the bases. Sandoval, with an opportunity to secure the sweep with a clutch walk or single, was instead hit by a fastball to her waist, and the ‘Niners won 1-0 in anticlimactic walk-off fashion.
With the sweep, the 49ers gained a game in the conference standings with Hawaii, after it dropped a game in its three game series with UC Santa Barbara on Friday.
“Good teams find a way to do what’s necessary, and we’re doing a good job of that right now,” Sowder said.
The 49ers will wrap-up its regular season with two final non-conference games against Fresno State on Saturday while remaining attentive to Hawaii’s final series of the season. The doubleheader’s first game will start at 1 p.m.