Softball drops doubleheader to Leopards

whittier college women's softball lose doubleheader La Verne Leopards, Sports - By Joshua De Bets on Thursday, February 16, 2012 - 02:02

Coming off an exciting walk-off win in their home opener and sweeping the Royals in a doubleheader, the women’s softball team looked to keep their early season success going with a doubleheader against the La Verne Leopards on Saturday, Feb. 11. The Leopards entered the day 3-0 and extended their winning streak to 5 as they scored early and often, sweeping the Poets in the doubleheader, winning 15-7 in game one and 14-8 in game two.

The Poets drop their first two SCIAC games of the season and are now 2-2 overall for the season. Meanwhile, the Leopards improved to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in SCIAC.
Junior starting pitcher Jessica Rosnack started her second game of the season and only went 2.2 innings, allowing 10 runs, 7 earned, on eight hits. Leopards infielder Candice Nunez started the scoring onslaught with a 2-run homerun in the first inning that Rosnack never seemed to recover from.

La Verne took control of the game in the third inning with seven hits and 8 runs scored. The Purple and Gold responded with 5 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, including a solid single up the middle by first-year infielder Samantha Mellano that drove in 2 runs. But the 8-run third inning proved to be too much as the Poets could not rebound and fell 15-7.
The Poets had their chances in game two of the doubleheader, but the third inning was once again the difference in the game. Whittier started off hot with a 4-run first inning and highlighted the team’s patience as they worked two walks with the bases loaded and added one more run in the bottom of the second inning to take a 5-2 lead.

La Verne responded with a 7-run inning in the top of the third and retook the lead 9-5, but the Poets refused to go away and started a rally in the bottom of the inning and scored 3 runs.
Leopards starting pitcher Laura Olsen was dominant after the third inning and refused to give the Poets any easy runs. She went 5.2 innings, nearly pitching a complete game, and earned the victory for the Leopards.

The Lady Poets look to win their first SCIAC game of the season against Redlands on Sunday, Feb. 19 at home at noon. The Bulldogs are 2-4 on the season, 2-0 in SCIAC, and are coming off a doubleheader sweep of Cal Lutheran.