Cal Poly Softball traveled north the weekend of Feb. 23-25, to play in the Mary Nutter Collegiants Classic tournament at Big League Dreams fields in Cathedral City, California.
Teams from across the country and from every conference, including Notre Dame, University of Oklahoma, UCLA and Mississippi State University, descended to California for the early season matchups.
After a 5-0 start to the season, the Mustangs have since gone 2-7 in their last nine games including 0-5 this weekend against some formidable opponents.
Late-inning comeback falls short
Their comeback attempt came up short one run in the Mustang’s opening game on Friday, losing 8-7 to Rutgers University despite five different Mustangs recording RBIs.
After responding to the Scarlet Knight’s (10-6) second-inning run with a sacrifice fly by junior designated player Caroline Allman, Rutgers broke the game open with a seven-run third inning, pushing the score to 8-1.
Junior Kate Judy started the game for the Mustangs inside the circle. Judy went 2 1/3 innings pitched, giving up five hits and five runs. Sophomore righthander Sophia Ramuno, who gave up three more runs in the inning in relief, ended the game with three strikeouts and four scoreless innings.
It took the Mustangs an inning to answer with junior second baseman Mia Perez’s two-run blast in the home half of the fourth starting it off.
In the fifth, senior shortstop Xiara Diaz cut the Rutgers lead to 8-4 with a one-out single to score junior center fielder Jessica Clements.
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Mustangs were down to their last three outs. Senior right fielder Juju Sargent doubled into the right field gap to begin the rally. A Clements single and a Diaz fielder’s choice scored Sargent, leaving a runner on base with one out.
Sophomore third baseman Mylina Garza’s base hit knocked Diaz home to continue the late-inning heroics. The lineup kept moving with another run-scoring fielder’s choice from sophomore left fielder Kiara Blanchard to bring in senior pinch runner Kenny Litana, creating a one-run ball game, 8-7.
With two on and two out, Allman grounded out to shortstop to end the comeback and the game.
A promising start ends in disappointment
After starting pitcher junior righthander Paige Maier held the University of Illinois to just two runs through the opening four innings in their first game on Saturday, the game broke open, and the Mustangs began their doubleheader Saturday against the Fighting Illini (3-6) with a 16-1 loss.
Blanchard produced a career-high three-for-three game, as Perez’s fielder’s choice scored Garza for the Mustangs lone run.
Maier struggled to begin the fifth inning, giving up a solo home run and leaving Ramuno in a tough spot, but she finished the inning by giving up three runs, one unearned.
Ramuno finished two innings of work, letting in four earned runs, seven total, on six hits. Judy finished the seventh innings for the Mustangs, allowing four unearned runs on two hits.
The Mustang pitchers let up 16 hits, amounting to 16 runs in the loss.
Pitching staff struggles continue
Cal Poly’s second Saturday game started with letting up a twelve-run first inning, which the Mustangs could never recover from losing 19-3 to the BYU Cougars (12-3) in five innings.
Judy could not make it out of the first inning by giving up a grand slam from designated player Lily Owens and a bases-clearing double by left fielder Maddie Bejarano. Judy was relieved by Maier, who could only obtain two outs in the inning, giving up seven runs on five hits.
Ramuno earned a strikeout to end a 12-run first inning finishing out the four innings, allowing seven runs on six hits.
The Mustangs responded to the twelve runs with a two-run shot to center field from Clements that drove in Sargent. However, they could not score again until Clements drove in Litana with a two-out single.
Clements went two for three, accounting for all three of Cal Poly’s runs.
Pitching staff back on track, offense remains stagnant
Cal Poly Softball dropped both of their Sunday games in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic extending their losing streak to five straight.
The two losses brought the Mustangs record to 7-7 while going 0-5 overall in the tournament.
First, Cal Poly took on the task of playing their first Top 25-ranked opponent this season the No. 21 California Golden Bears (15-1.)
Back-to-back singles to lead the game off put a runner in scoring position before senior right fielder Juju Sargent scored on a passed ball.
The score would hold until the fifth inning when Cal Poly doubled the advantage on an RBI single from junior catcher Julia Barnett.
The Golden Bears responded in the bottom of the frame, with three runs crossing to take the lead away from the Mustangs.
Cal Poly could not find any offense in the last two innings and dropped the game 3-2.
The Fresno State Bulldogs (11-4) were their next matchup directly after their game against California.
A solo home run off of Ramuno gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
Cal Poly’s offense was stifled through the first five frames by Bulldog starter Taylor Gilmore managing only one walk and one hit.
Then came the sixth, with the Mustangs plating two runs off of RBI singles from Diaz and Blanchard.
Ramuno limited the damage after the home run until the sixth inning where a passed ball and sacrifice-fly plated two runs for Fresno State, giving them the 3-2 advantage that they would hold.
Cal Poly will look to snap their losing streak in the Lancer Joust from Friday, March 1 to Sunday, March 3.