A day after being no hit by UCLA in their first NCAA Regional appearance, the CSUB softball team fell 8-5 to Fresno State to be eliminated from the tournament.
CSUB was maybe a little nervous to start the game with four errors committed in just the first half inning. Fresno State took advantage scoring three quick runs.
Alex Simmons will go down with CSUB’s first hit in the NCAA Regional and then with two on she recorded the first two RBI's with a bloop single to right making to 3-2 game.
Alyssa Villalpando made it 4-2 hitting the game’s only home run to left field and that would signal the end of Amber Mills day. She was replaced with freshman Alyssa Stockton who would allow three more runs in the third inning and then a sacrifice fly in the fourth. The Bulldogs lead 8-2 and at that point looked like they would run rule the Runners.
But Selena Gonzalez with a shot to the gap in left center scored Simmons, Nicole Curry then dropped one in left allowing Sydeny Raeber to score and catcher Jo Larios capped the fifth with another RBI single to make it 8-5.
But Fresno State would bring in new pitcher Kamalani Dung, someone the Runners just couldn’t figure out. Dung would strike out the side to end the game and the Runners season.
Disappointment from players but younger players are excited about what the future holds in Bakersfield. “Definitely exciting," said Stockton who went 4.2 IP allowing 3 ER. "It pushes me way more than i ever thought it would.”
“I think that it was a great stepping stone for the future and just to pave that path for them to have that brighter future and to hopefully go further than we did," said senior Alex Simmons who went 3-4 with 2 RBI.
The Runners will lose seven seniors through graduation but head coach Crissy Buck-Ziegler said is the biggest takeaway from this tournament run was the team's never say die attitude. “Bakersfield has heart and that’s what we had to keep showing is that heart. It would have been easy to get run ruled but we just kept fighting," she said.
