The Utah Valley women’s softball team (3-7) fell 1-0 to the Loyola Marymount University Lions (3-7) on Sunday afternoon in their finale at the Campbell/Cartier Classic in San Diego, California.
After a scoreless start for both teams, Morgan DeBord crushed a home run in the fourth inning to put LMU up 1-0 over the Wolverines. The Lions then held on to win 1-0, handing the Wolverines their third-straight loss.
The Wolverines only had two hits through 21 plate appearances and had two batters walked.
Libbie Hawker led the way for the Wolverines, going 1-2 from the plate and getting walked once. Taylor Wooten was the other Wolverine that accounted for a hit, going 1-2 in her at-bats as well. Kalena Shepherd was also walked.
LMU pitcher Jenna Perez (1-4), pitching all seven innings against UVU, had 12 strikeouts, five flyouts, and three groundouts.
UVU pitcher Katie Zuniga (1-5), despite surrendering the game-winning home run to DeBord, still had a phenomenal game. Through six innings, Zuniga had two strikeouts, eight flyouts, and seven groundouts; all while pitching only 64 times.
Zuniga also held the Lions to five total hits in the game through 21 plate appearances.
The Lions threatened to score in the bottom of the first inning after Sydney Poole and DeBord each singled and then stole a base to reach third and second bases, respectively, to put LMU in scoring position. However, Zuniga was able to get out of the jam after forcing two consecutive flyouts to close the inning.
Hawker was able to single in the top of the fourth, getting on base for her second time in the game. Britney Moreno followed with a sacrifice bunt that advanced Hawker to second base. A few at-bats later, a wild pitch by Perez gave the opportunity for Hawker to reach third base. However, Perez responded by striking out Megan Gibbs to close out the inning.
DeBord broke the scoring drought for both teams in the bottom frame of the fourth with a moonshot that gave the Lions a 1-0 advantage.
While the Wolverines were able to get a runner on base in the sixth and seventh innings, they were never able to answer for the remainder of the game as Perez held them off to give LMU the 1-0 shutout victory over UVU.
During the Campbell/Cartier Classic, UVU split their games against LMU 1-1; however, the Lions lead the all-time series 12-5 over the Wolverines.
The Wolverines next travel to the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic (Big League Dreams Sports Park) in Cathedral City, California for another five-game series. The Wolverines will open the classic in a doubleheader on Friday against Pac-12 opponent the University of California Golden Bears (9-2) at 7:30 p.m. MT and Long Beach State University Beach (4-6) at 9:30 p.m. MT.
All games in the classic can be viewed on flosoftball.com.
