LOS ANGELES – The Loyola Marymount University softball team had a taste of Olympic competition as the Lions hosted the Mexican National Team for two games Friday at Smith Field.
The Lions opened up their game against Team Mexico with an honorary first pitch from pitcher
Paulina Johnson's father, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Both teams went quietly for the first two innings. In the top of the third, Team Mexico put the first run on the board.
The Lions responded in the bottom of the third after
Taylor Keinath hit a homerun, her first of the season.
The teams remained tied up at 1-1 through the rest of the game, forcing an eighth inning. Team Mexico gained momentum to open up the eighth, as the team scored four runs, to take a 5-1 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth,
Page Mindedahl placed on second base and then advanced to third after a groundout from
Morgan DeBord, and then made it home after a double from Keinath.
The Lions weren't able to put any more runs on the board, closing out the game with a 5-2 loss.
LMU had three total hits, while Team Mexico had nine. Keinath went 2-4 at the plate, while
Molly Grumbo went 1-4.
Alessandra Samperio picked up the loss after she pitched 5.2 innings, allowing five hits and four runs. She had three strikeouts.
Paulina Johnson started the game, pitching 2.1 innings, allowing four hits and one run.
Down 1-0 on the day, the Lions opened up game two to a strong start, as Grumbo was first up to bat and hit a single, and then stole second and then third.
Allisha Martinez singled to send Grumbo home, giving the Lions a 1-0 lead to close out the first inning.
Marina Vitalich shut Team Mexico down over her three innings of work, allowing just one hit from the 12 batters she faced without allowing a run.
Team Mexico plated two in the top of the fourth inning off relief pitcher Malory Eckroth. The Mexican National Team capitalized off a homerun and a bases-loaded walk to bring in another run. With the bases still loaded, LMU brought in
Brittany Steenbergen to close out the inning. The sophomore through one pitch and induced a fly out to center to escape the jam.
The future Olympic team for the 2021 Tokyo games tacked on two more runs in the fifth inning to extend their lead to 4-1.
LMU had an opportunity in the sixth inning to tie or take the lead as the Lions strung together two hits and a walk to load the bases before coming up short with an inning-ending strikeout.
A solo home run in the top of the seventh inning made the score line, 5-1, before LMU went down in order to close the game.
Despite the two exhibition losses, the Lions met Team Mexico in the circle for a postgame photo.
LMU will now shift focus entirely to the WCC, as the final 15 games are all conference series. The Lions begin league play on the road at Santa Clara for a three-game series Apr. 10-11.
