Oregon State
California
No. 16 Softball Stumbles Against No. 3 California, 4-1
April 03, 2004 | Softball
April 3, 2004
BERKELEY, Calif. - Sophomore catcher Lisa Allen belted her fourth home run of the season, but it wasn't enough as No. 3 ranked California recorded a 4-1 victory against No. 16 Oregon State in Saturday's Pacific-10 Conference softball action.
Oregon State falls to 31-11 on the season and 0-3 in the Pac-10, while Cal improves to 33-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
Much like Friday's game against No. 11 Stanford, Saturday's contest started out to be a pitcher's dual between OSU's Ta'Tyana McElroy and Cal's Kristina Thorson.
Both teams squandered a scoring opportunity in the first inning by leaving a pair of runners stranded on base when both hurlers used a strikeout to end their half of the inning.
Freshman Mia Longfellow picked up a bunt single in the third inning but the Beavers were unable to capitalize. In Cal's half of the third, Vicky Galindo reached base on a single and proceeded to steal second base, but was thrown out at the plate by Vanessa Iapala when she attempted to score on an infield hit from Chelsea Spencer.
The Bears used two hits and took advantage of an Oregon State error in the top of the fourth inning to break the scoreless tie. Designated player Kelly Anderson's RBI single to center field plated Roni Rodriguez, giving Cal a 1-0 lead.
California cushioned its lead with a run in the top of the fifth as Lindsay James, who had singled, scored on a fielder's choice by Haley Woods. OSU reliever Brianne McGowan forced Alex Sutton to strikeout, ending the frame, but the damage was done.
In the sixth inning, Allen blasted her solo shot well over the 220-foot mark in straight-away center field to cut into the California lead, but the Beaver offense was unable to push any more runs across the plate, stranding six runners on base in the contest.
Cal tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to put the game out of reach.
McElroy suffered the loss after 4.1 innings of work, falling to 10-2 on the season, while Thorson used seven strikeouts to improve to 15-0 on the year.
Longfellow finished with a 2-for-3 clip from the plate to lead the Beavers.
The Beavers and Bears face each other again on Sunday at 1 p.m.
GAME RESULTS:
No. 16 Oregon State - 000 001 0 - 1 5 1
No. 3 California - 000 112 x - 4 9 0
McElroy, McGowan (5) and Allen (OSU), Thorson and Woods (CAL). WP - Thorson (15-0). LP - McElroy (10-2). HR - Allen (OSU).
