Feb. 27, 2005

Box Score

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. - Lisa Abbott hit her second home run of the tournament, but the LMU softball team dropped a 9-3 decision to #1 California in the final game of the Palm Springs Classic this afternoon. Three LMU errors led to four unearned runs for the Bears, who improve to 11-1 on the year. LMU finishes its first tournament with a 1-4 record. The Lions recorded a 7-0 win over Notre Dame on Friday.

The Bears struck early, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. They took advantage of a Lion error to score two unearned runs to take a 3-0 lead.

Abbott led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run to center field. Margo Pineda followed her with a double to right center. Without recording an out, the Bears replaced their starting pitcher with team ace Kelly Anderson. Danielle Kaminaka welcomed her to the game by hitting a single to right field that drove home Pineda to make it a 3-2 game.

The Bears took advantage of two straight walks to lead off the second, and scored two runs to extend the lead back to three runs, 5-2. They tacked on three more runs in the fourth and added an unearned run in the top of the seventh.

LMU added another run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Casie Phillips led off the inning with a walk. After pinch runner Lauren Hiramoto advanced to second on an illegal pitch by Cal pitcher Kristina Thorson, she advanced to second on a single by Abbott. Hiramoto scored LMU's third run of the game on Pineda's single through the right side of the infield.

Freshman Tiffany Pagano took the loss for the Lions. She allowed five earned runs and three unearned runs in 4.0 innings of work. Classmate Kayla Meeks pitched well in relief, allowing just one unearned run in the final 3.0 innings of the game.

Abbott and Pineda each finished the game with two hits, a run scored and an RBI.

Coming into the Palm Springs Classic, the #1 Bears had allowed just one run in their first seven games. This weekend, the Lions scored a combined five runs against the #1 team (California) and the #3 team (Texas).

The Lions return to Southern California this week to face Cal State Northridge on Thursday, March 3rd. The doubleheader at Northridge starts at 12:00pm.

-GO LIONS-