SEASIDE --- After losing to Humboldt State 1-0 in eight innings to open Saturday's doubleheader, Cal State Monterey Bay needed a lift if the Otters were to avoid a fourth straight loss to the visiting Lumberjacks. #Angela Cabral# put it on her shoulders and carried the team with her right arm, throwing a shutout in a 2-0 win.
Lizzy Prescott (21-5) won the first game, her third win of the six-game series, outlasting #Jessica Boyle# (2-5). Both allowed just five hits through regulation. The Otters nearly scored in the sixth when #Homa Shafii# led off with a double. She was sacrificed to third, but the next two batters popped up, stranding her.
Boyle had two out in the top eighth when Nikki Ketteringham doubled to centerfield. Natalie Galletly came up next and hit a bloop down the left field line that landed fair by inches and Ketteringham ran home from second for the go-ahead run. Boyle quickly snuffed the rally, but Prescott came in and struck out the side to finish the game.
It was the third one-run loss in a row for CSUMB and Cabral said later that it was hard not be down a little. "But my team picked me up, cheering me on, and I helped pick them up," she said.
Cabral (9-6) allowed just four hits and pitched her way out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth with nobody out to earn the victory. Hannah Jones (4-4) took the loss despite giving up just three hits and two earned runs in a complete-game effort.
#Megan Luna# doubled down the left field line to lead off the fourth inning and Shafii knocked her in to score the first run. #Casey Kaufman# scored the second run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by #Alixis Villarin#. The Lumberjacks threatened in the fifth, loading the bases with nobody out, but Cabral got the next two batters to ground out to her and she threw two runners out at the plate. Galletly grounded out to first base to end the inning.
“I like pressure, so I like those situations,” said Cabral of the jam. “That's when I'm at my best. I really concentrate.”
The split keeps puts CSUMB at 18-16 overall and 10-10 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. HSU is now 25-12 and 11-5 in the CCAA. The Otters are at home again on Wednesday against Western Oregon. The doubleheader starts at noon and there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony before the game to celebrate CSUMB's new baseball/softball complex.
