May 1, 2010

Box Score

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - San Diego pushed across a combined ten runs in their Saturday doubleheader sweep of the PCSC Coastal Division leading LMU Lions winning game one 6-4 and dominating game two 4-1.

"I'm really proud of how well our team played all around today," said head coach Melissa McElvain. "Jennifer [Ellenbeck] and Kaitlin [Healy] really set the tone today from the circle, we swung the bats aggressively, and played solid defense and that led to good results for us today."

With the win, USD improves to 17-24 on the season and evens out at 6-6 in conference play. The Lions fall to 22-20 overall and 9-5 in the PCSC.

After falling behind 3-0 in game one, the Toreros unleashed the bats in the second inning posting four runs on three hits. Celeste Soto lead off with a single followed by a single through the left side by Jennifer Ellenbeck moving Soto to second base. Casciola loaded the bases on a walk moving Ellenbeck to second base and Soto to third. Megan Walsh walked moving all base runners up one and scoring Soto. Mickell Escobar hit a sacrifice fly moving Casciola to third base and scoring Ellenbeck. Taylor Lawrence grounded out to the pitcher for the second out advancing Walsh to second base. Kristen Gensler hit an RBI single through the right side and then advanced to second base on an LMU error which allowed Megan Walsh to score from third base and Carey Casciola crossed home plate to take a 4-3 lead. The Toreros recorded another two runs in the fourth inning to go on to win 6-4 over the Lions.

Game two was a pitcher's duel through four-and-a-half innings until sophomore Taylor Hensley sent a ball deep over the left field fence snapping the 0-0 tie. Danielle Duhart had a base hit to open the inning when Hensley took a first pitch and sent it soaring over the outfield lifting the toreros to a 2-0 lead. Soto grounded out to the pitcher followed by Ellenbeck getting walked. Casciola singled to right field advancing Ellenbeck to second base. Walsh would strike out for the second out of the inning. Escobar came up big with an RBI-single to left center field moving Casciola to third base and scoring Ellenbeck. Taylor Lawrence would hit an RBI-single to left field capping off the hit parade with USD taking a 4-0 lead. USD's defense would hold through the remainder of the game giving up one run on a seventh inning rally by the Lions, however the Toreros got out of the inning going on to win 4-1 to complete the sweep of LMU.

USD had four batters hitting above .400 on the day combining for 19 hits. Celeste Soto and Jennifer Ellenbeck both hit 3-for-6 while Ellenbeck scored two runs and Soto scored one run. Mickell Escobar finished 2-for-4 with one double and two RBI. Carey Casciola was 2-for-5with two runs scored and one double. Taylor Hensley recorded her eighth homerun of the season.

Ellenbeck finished the day with her 16th complete game of the season pitching seven innings while picking up the win improving to 12-11 and striking out four batters. Kaitlin Healy improves to 3-7 on the season pitching her fourth complete game striking out two batters in seven innings of work.

The Toreros and Lions wrap up the PCSC series on Sunday, May 2 with a doubleheader scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at the USD Softball Complex.